Category: News

EndSARS Protests Have Just Started, Buhari Should Release All Detained Protesters, Dokpesi Says

Founder of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, has warned the Nigerian Government to brace up for more #EndSARS protests.

He urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to release all detained protesters and called for the unfreezing of their accounts by banks.

According to Dokpesi during a visit to The Nation headquarters in Lagos over last month’s attack on this newspaper’s facility, the protests were peaceful until the government-sponsored hoodlums attacked protesters.

He described #EndSARS as the beginning of a long struggle to appraise and restructure the country.

He said, “A lot of impunity has happened in a very recent time. Nigeria has never been as divided as it is today. People have lost faith and confidence in the ability of Nigeria to remain as one united country.

“So, the time is fast approaching but we pray that God will raise a crop of Nigerians, who still believe strongly in the unity, progress and development of this country. Those who can sacrifice because the people who are supposed to be our servants – public servants, civil servants – have become our public masters.

“Until we re-orientate the people that public service is service to our people that we are in the office to contribute to the well-being and good of our country, then, the #EndSARS has just started. It has emboldened quite a lot of people. There is nothing to be hidden anymore.

“It shows that the government doesn’t have respect for anybody – either for our children or for us. They have used our father’s time; they used our own time; they want to use our children’s time. It must stop! It is not in the interest of anybody to continue to hunt these children while keeping their own children safe.

“My own children and your own children, and the children of everybody that went out to protest were not armed.

“It was those that are in government that invited hoodlums to chase them out of the streets. We saw them with sticks in all parts of Abuja and in the northern part of the country. If the government loves itself, it should be advised to stop and release everybody (the protesters). All those youths that have their accounts closed, they should open them immediately and allow them to go.”

Dokpesi said as a parent, he was ready to come out to challenge the government to release the protesters.

CNN investigation has alleged that the Nigerian army used live bullets on protesters during its intervention in the #EndSARS protests in Lekki, Lagos state.

The American cable network also unveiled the identity of a protester who reportedly died on the night of the shootings. He was named as Victor Sunday Ibanga.

CNN said a forensic probe of the bullet casings recovered from the scene of the incident revealed that live bullets were fired at the protesters.

It said current and former Nigerian military sources confirmed that the bullet casings “match those used by the army”.

Two ballistics experts also confirmed that the shape of the bullet casings indicate they used live rounds, CNN said.

The network also said it worked with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and “established that several of the bullets from the Lekki toll gate originated from Serbia. Export documents CNN has seen show that Nigeria purchased weaponry from Serbia almost every year between 2005 and 2016”.

The Nigerian army has repeatedly denied using live rounds, insisting that its soldiers used blank bullets and shot only into the air.

FINALLY, A NAME AND A PICTURE

Before the publication of Ibanga’s picture, no dead victim had been publicly identified.

Others who were previously reported dead later came out to deny — or it turned out they died elsewhere before the October 20 shooting.

Obianuju Udeh, aka DJ Switch, who streamed the shooting live in Instagram, said she counted 15 dead bodies.

A protester who testified before the judicial panel set up by the Lagos state government to investigate the incident said he saw one dead body.

The Nigerian army had initially denied its men were at the scene of the incident where hundreds of #EndSARS protesters gathered to demand an end to police brutality.

Some of the protesters told CNN that soldiers fired into the crowd.

The Lagos state government had first said no deaths were recorded before Babatunde Sanwo-Olu, the governor, revealed that two persons later died from their wounds.

It is still unclear if Ibanga was one of the two since the details were not made public.

TheCable captures the inconsistencies between the Lagos government and the army regarding the incident in this timeline.

CNN said its probe of the incident showed that 27-year-old Ibanga died of bullet wounds sustained from the Lekki shootings — but it was the police that were said to have taken his body away.

According to the investigation, Elisha, Victor’s brother, received a call that he (Victor) had been shot dead and “that the police took his body away”.

CNN also quoted one Peace Okon as saying she has not seen her 18-year-old brother, Wisdom Okon, who went to the protest ground on the night of the shooting.

Okon was said to have relocated to Lagos only a few weeks before the incident.

”I’ve gone to hospitals; I’ve gone to police stations, I’ve gone to everywhere. I can’t find him,” his sister said.

CNN also reported that several families are yet to locate their loved ones since Lekki shooting.

US Air Force Special Operations flew NAVY SEALS to Nigeria to rescue the son of a missionary Philip Walton who was kidnapped in Niger Republic by armed Fulani herdsmen.

The young man was kidnapped in neighboring Niger at his farm Tuesday morning by Fulani herdsmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles but was smuggled into Nigeria through our border that is closed by this government.

The Fulani herdsmen kidnappers demanded for $1 million from Phillips dad who has lived in Niger for 30 years.

The CIA provided intelligence leading to Walton’s whereabouts while the Marine Special Operations elements in Africa helped locate him by tracking the Kidnappers phone.

Early this morning, about 30 US Navy commandos parachuted into the remote area in northern Nigeria where the kidnappers had taken Walton. They hiked about three miles until they came upon the captors’ small encampment.

An intense but brief gunfight followed in which one captor escaped.

Walton was not harmed and whisked from the camp to a makeshift landing zone where a U.S. helicopter brought him to safety.

According to ABC, all but one of the seven captors was killed in the mission, described as a ‘precision’ hostage rescue.

‘They were all dead before they knew what happened,’ a source told the network.

America is nobody’s mate and truly the greatest country in the world.

See the resources they mobilized just to rescue one citizen kidnapped by herdsmen.

Now tell me, if you are an American citizen, why won’t you be proud of your great country?

Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Group, owners of Lagos Oriental Hotel, has denied insinuations in some quarters that it is owned by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In a statement by Taiwo Alli, Executive Director Corporate Affairs, Wempco Group the hotel’s management said: “Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Group, owners of Lagos Oriental Hotel, formally acknowledge that there was an attack on our property on October 20, 2020, when hoodlums armed with guns, knives and bottles, forcefully gained entrance to our facility, assaulted some of our security personnel and damaged properties.

“Unidentified individuals whose motives remain unknown to us have gone to town with a rather unfortunate narrative claiming that the Lagos Oriental Hotel is the investment of politicians, thereby exposing it to unwarranted attacks.

“Lagos Oriental Hotel is owned by the WEMPCO Group with 99percent shareholding. The WEMPCO Group of Companies was founded by businessman and entrepreneur Mr. K.F. Tung over fifty (50) years ago.

“The Lagos Oriental Hotel is a flagship in the Nigerian hospitality business but is not a flagship of the WEMPCO Group. It is an investment made by the Group in 2008, but not part of their core manufacturing business.

“At present, WEMPCO Group provides jobs for over 25,000 young Nigerians, affording them the opportunity to earn a living and gain useful experience. It is therefore unfortunate the attempt to disrupt our business and tarnish our image painstakingly built over the years.

“Speaking on the development, the Managing Director, Mr. Lawrence Tung noted that ‘like other responsible businesses operating in Nigeria, Lagos Oriental Hotel is hopeful that closure will be brought to cases of injustice identified in the country. It is however important to protect our businesses from unwarranted attacks by individuals who may not be aware of the facts around our existence.

‘We are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the incident that occurred on 20, October 2020 and assure our numerous clients and partners that we are working to ensure that normalcy returns to the hotel.”

The sad event that happened yesterday at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos where armed soldiers were alleged to have killed unarmed young protesters is highly disheartening, regrettable and condemnable.

Our political leadership must immediately investigate the circumstances that led to the avoidable confrontation and consequent loss of lives with a view to swiftly fishing out the unlawful attackers who must be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Our children are on the streets with the spirit of patriotism because they believe in the future of Nigeria and that our system is flexible enough to adapt to changes for better performance.

We need to manage the process of listening to them and working with them to jointly arrive at the new Nigeria of our collective dreams.

Their generation was nurtured with the values of efficiency, transparency, accountability and value chains. These are the noble values they seek to inject into our polity so that our country can realise its potential as a world power.

It is time to calm down and allow traditional rulers, as fathers of the nation to lead the way to peace and restoration of trust. We must find amicable solutions even though this attack has regrettably eroded the trust needed to establish dialogue and ensure a civic process for resolving the crises. We must not be tired.

Patience and dialogue is needed to bring both parties to the table to set timelines for the implementation of the demands of the movement. This is imperative.

I call upon the government at all levels to demonstrate urgency and responsiveness by immediately acting on the yearnings of these patriotic Nigerians in order to facilitate a just and peaceful resolution of all the challenges confronting our country.
#ENDSARS
#ANewNigeria

#EndSARS Protesters Turn Benin-Lagos Expressway To Cooking Spots

The #EndSARS protesters in Benin on Saturday introduced a new dimension to the week-long agitation as they turned parts of the Benini-Lagos expressway to cooking spots at the pedestrians bridge by the University of Benin Main Gate.

The protesters, who barricaded the ever busy road on bothe ends set up emergency kitchen spots on road and cooked all sorts of delicacies, which they share freely among themselves in a communal and carnivalesque way.

The food items and condiments were said to have been donated by an unnamed person, who is sympathetic to the course Tue youths are championing.

Though the activity led to a gridlock on the busy highway, the cooking spree and the communal sharing by the demonstrating youths in their hundreds, was pictorial enough and entertaining in context.

Meanwhile, Edo State Commissioner of Police, mr. Babatunde Kokumo, has ordered the homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence a full scale investigation into the immediate and remote cause of the Friday’s killing of a protester by gunmen around Ring Road, Benin.

The police boss vowed “to arrest the perpetrators of this dastardly act for prosecution in court accordingly.”

A statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Chidi Nwabuzor, said the police boss “commiserates with the family members of the deceased for his untimely death and pray to God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. He however, appeals to the EndSARS protesters to end the protest and patiently wait for the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu to implement the Police reforms.”

The demonstrators, apart from blocking the stretch of the Benin – Lagos expressway beginning from the old toll gate end to Uselu Market, a distance of about nine kilometers, also blocked the Ring Road, making travelers and commuters alike to detour to inner streets routes to find their way into and out of the city and within the heart of the city.

One of the protesters, Taiye Alao, told journalists that the protest had gone beyond the issue of #EndSARS.

“What we are asking for is not just end to SARS, we are saying Buhari must go, we are tired of his administration. The Buhari led government should resign, we need to fix Nigeria. We are we being oppressed in our own country, the politicians are oppressing us, we are in democracy and not democratic slavery, we can never be slaves in our own country”, he disclosed.

Dolapo Badmus, Yomi Shogunle snd others are dismissed from the police Force today on the grounds abuse of their profession.

From what we had from people they say these police people has always been fighting for the people, even though, there’s no one without flaws, but they support the people and have been exercising their duties diligently.

Except there’s something they are not aware of.

Against the backdrop of continued EndSARS protests across the country, the Nigerian Army has said it is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order.

Army Headquarters also stated that troops are ready to deal with any untoward situation decisively.

The Army directed all it’s officers and soldiers, never to be distracted by those it called ‘anti-democratic forces and agents of disunity’.

This declaration was contained in a statement signed late last night by Col Sagir Musa, Acting Director, Army Public Relations, titled ‘Nigerian Army Remains Resolute to the Peace and Stability of the Nation’.

It reads, “The Nigerian Army (NA) wishes to reassure law-abiding citizens that it is highly committed to the sustenance of peace, security and defence of democracy in Nigeria.

“As a responsible and law-abiding organisation, the Nigerian Army reaffirms its unalloyed loyalty and commitment to the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari and the Constitution of the Country.

“The NA hereby warns all subversive elements and trouble makers to desist from such acts as it remains highly committed to defend the country and her democracy at all cost.

“The NA is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively.

“All officers and men are directed never to be distracted by anti-democratic forces and agents of disunity.”

No Nigerian blood needs to be spilled or life lost during a peaceful protest that seeks to advance our country.

We may hold different views on national issues, but there is no doubt that most people desire the same thing for Nigeria: a place where we can all live out the full potential of our God-given abilities.

I implore everyone to exercise restraint as we walk through these challenging times.