Despite heavy deployments by the Nigeria Police Force, and regardless of pleas by the Federal and some state governments for organisers of the second nationwide protest against hunger and hardship in the land, one of the arrowheads, Omoyele Sowore, has declared categorically that the demonstrations will go ahead on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, and a candidate in the 2023 presidential election, disclosed this on his official X handle, on Monday, maintaining that the protests will proceed nationwide.
“NO GOING BACK! #FearlessInOctober”, Sowore declared, but assured that the protests would be peaceful, even as he reiterated that it will hold at the Eagles Square, Abuja.
Sowore continues: “The protests will hold across all parts of Nigeria because the scale of the devastation, hunger, insecurity, and hardship that this government has unleashed on Nigerians is national. I will emphasise again that these will be peaceful protests, as they’ve always been.
“The last protests were peaceful, yet the government met the protesters with batons and bullets.
“We will not be deterred, though. Our only weapon is truth, and no amount of force or violence will prevent us from speaking truth to power.” he said.
Sowore said that the rash of hunger ravaging the country does not discriminate against anybody as majority of Nigerians are languishing under its pangs. Therefore, maintained it was incumbent upon Nigerians to troop out and voice their frustrations.
“Between the last protest just two months ago and now, petrol prices have risen by almost N300 per litre,” he continued. “The naira has further devalued, and prices have increased in the market. Bandits have taken over and killed off entire communities. Floods are devastating our cities.
“Under these circumstances, can anyone be surprised that the Nigerian people want to voice their displeasure with this government’s failure to address the issues affecting them?
“We are prepared to come out to protest. We are determined to do so peacefully. I can assure you that thousands of voices will be raised in protest on October 1.
“The pangs of hunger and groans of pain of the Nigerian people will not be drowned out by the government,” he said during an interview session shared on his handle.”
