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| Cross-section of the protesters |
Motorists and commuters passing through Kogi state were yesterday stranded as all the roads linking the state to the north and the southern parts of the country were barricaded with bonfires, causing traffic gridlock.
The action of the protesters who were mostly youths and civil society groups, took commuters and travelers who were returning to their places of work after the New Year celebrations, unawares.
Those who managed to arrive the ancient city could not move out due to blockage of all entries and exits.
By 12 noon, the entire city had been enveloped with smoke even as policemen fired teargas to disperse the protesters.
Speaking to newsmen on the protest, the former chairman of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, (TUC), in the state, Comrade Ibrahim Obansa, condemned what he called the unilateral removal of fuel subsidy by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Labour, rights activists disrupt Lagos
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As early as 8a.m in the morning, the protesters under the aegis of the Joint Action Front (JAF), led by prominent activists such as Ganiyat, the wife of the late legal luminary, Gani Fawehinmi, Lagos based human right lawyer, Femi Falana, NLC National Vice-President, Issa Aremu, Femi Aborisade, JAF Chairman Dipo Fashina, Ayo Akere, took off from the Nigeria Labour Congress House, Yaba, and marched through Itire/Lawanson road in Surulere, picketing filling stations on the road.
Protesters said the Federal Government’s removal of petroleum subsidy would be massively resisted by all stakeholders in the polity.
The protest led to the total shutdown of the Ikorodu expressway and other major roads in the state capital, crippling social and economic activities on that axis, extending to the Gani Fawehinmi Garden in Ojota.
Commuters who were trapped in the ensuing commotion joined the protest that was hitherto peaceful before the interference from area boys and other miscreants, who infiltrated the ranks of protesters. A BRT bus was also burnt along Ikorodu Road in Fadeyi area of the city.
Similarly, in his reaction after a meeting of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), yesterday in Lagos, the vice presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in last year’s presidential elections, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), is currently strategising on how best to confront the government on the removal of fuel subsidy.
“It is not fuel subsidy but fuel absurdity. The president wants to impoverish the Nigerian people. We foresaw the danger coming, but we must rescue our nation from this clueless government,” he said.
1000 register for protest in Gombe
In Gombe, over 1,000 people registered their names in preparation for protest yesterday.
Speaking at the Emir of Gombe’s palace, venue of the registration, the former National President of Gombe state Student Association, Sani Sabo, said “enough is enough in assassinating our destiny, we must rise up to defend the future of our nation and generations unborn”.
He added that Nigeria is among the top oil rich counties in the world but suddenly raised the price from N65 to N140 per litre of petroleum in such an unfair, unjust, embarrassing and distrustful manner.
According to him, “History will never forgive our leaders who insisted that Jonathan must rule Nigeria in the last general elections; I think we should cooperate with NLC if at all they are serious to protest the deregulation.”
Speaking to our Correspondent Barrister Luka Haruna Musa who is also the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said that the present government is very insensitive to the feelings of Nigerians.
He added, “I think the government has fired the first shot against the people of Nigeria and eventually it is the very bullet that will consume the political leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Kano: Students hit the streets again
Hundreds of students also took to the streets in another round of demonstration in Kano demanding the immediate reversal of the policy.
The students who defied the freezing early cold yesterday went round the state capital as early as 8:00 am.
The green leaves and placards carrying students marched from the old site of Bayero University Kano (BUK), along BUK Road through the Zone One headquarters of the Assistant Inspector General of Police down to the Kofar Naisa new lay out.
They chanted anti deregulation slogans condemning the insensitivity of government in relation with the welfare of the Nigerian people.
The students especially from universities currently at home as a result of the strike action by lecturers also asked the federal government to accede to their lecturers demand to enable them resume classes.
Meanwhile, security personnel who kept watch on the demonstrators barricaded the road leading to Government House from the Kano-Line area.
The demonstration went peacefully without incident either between the students and the police or with the public especially road users who had to endure moments of traffic grid here and there while the demonstration lasted.
One killed in Ilorin
However, hundreds of youths in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital yesterday hit the streets in protest amidst confrontation with anti-riot policemen leading to the death of a protester.
At about 10 am, the youths within the ages of 15 and 25 years staged a protest march from Oja-Oba, near Emir’s palace down to general post office and set bonfire at different junctions.
During the protest, our correspondent who was caught in the crossfire with protesters witnessed the youths’ anger against the manner the anti-riot policemen monitored them. The demonstrators then threw stones at the patrol van. The police responded by shooting live bullets at the youths who sought refuge in different shops opposite the Ilorin general post office.
A protester are reportedly killed by anti-riot policemen while traders closed shops and fled for safety when the police shot sporadically into the air to scare protesters.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kwara state police Command, ASP Dabo Ezekiel confirmed one death but said the protester was stabbed to death by co-protesters during the rally and not by stray bullet from the police.
Two filling stations in Ilorin, Total and Texaco, were torched by the protesters while two cars were vandalised.
Also burnt was the bullion van of Sterling Bank along the Murtala Mohammed way/ Post-office.
NLC slams Killing by police
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has cautioned the Jonathan administration against the use of force and firearms against unarmed protesters.
In a statement in Abuja yesterday, NLC president, Abdulwahed I. Omar said, “it is the Jonathan administration’s inhuman policy that has resulted in the murder of an innocent citizen. The NLC holds the Jonathan administration liable for this murder and advises it to fish out its agents who shot protesters in Ilorin and bring them to justice”.
The NLC praised Lagosians for their massive protests on the streets of Lagos yesterday which ended at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota and commended the protesters who were on the streets in various parts of the country from Lokoja to Kano. On the committee headed by the retired Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Alfa Belgore purportedly to dialogue with Labour, the NLC said “we think this is an afterthought meant to give Nigerians the impression that the government wants to consult Nigerians”. It vehemently condemned the attacks on peaceful demonstrators, the arrests in Abuja and the murder of a protester by the police in Ilorin as not portraying a government that is interested in dialogue and peaceful negotiations.
While describing as misleading and callous claims by Special Adviser on Media to President Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati to the press that Labour was in support of the subsidy removal, the NLC said it would, along with the TUC, jointly issue a clear directive on the date a coordinated nationwide general strike, mass rallies and street protests will commence, and the methodology of the protests.
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