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| Omoyele Sowere |
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank has condemned the arrest of Omoyele Sowere for calling for mass protest across the country and appealed to his associates not to lose focus as the country need such mass protest at this point in time.
Sowere who convene what he called #RevolutionNow was arrested at the weekend by men of Directorate of State Services (DSS).
Organised Labour made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) have since disowned the call for mass protest across the country saying they were not in collaboration with any group to organise mass protests in the country.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, Frank said the country needs such massive protest now more than ever because of the killings, kidnapping, banditry, hunger, unemployment, economic disaster and all manners of mismanagement going on, adding that the protest is not about the convener, but about the survival of Nigeria as a country.
He want the likes of Tunde Bakare, Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and others he described as ‘fathers of protesters’ to support Sowere’s idea if they are not also supporting the evil currently going on in the country.
He said it is the constitutional right of the citizens to protest when they are dissatisfied with anything in a democratic government, adding that all over the world, citizens expresses their disaffections without being arrested by their governments.
He reminded President Muhammadu Buhari of how he led protest in 2003 when he was in ANPP and 2014 before he emerged Nigerian President.
He said: “If the arrest is not resisted now, it will become order of the day to the extent that even the Labour unions and the media will no longer be free to air their views.
“Even the Abacha government did not do what this current government is doing. In Sudan, Hong Kong and other nations, citizens are protesting against their governments and nobody is arrested or intimidated. General Buhari should know that this is democracy and if its hard for him to cope, he should step aside.
“This revolution is long overdue. It is not about the convener but about the unworkable system which has resulted in all these avoidable killings of innocent Nigerians and all manners of evil in the land.
“I therefore call on like minds, the media, the real comrades and the known fathers of protest like Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, Tunde Bakare and others to act now or else their names will become history for keeping quiet in the face of evil.
“I also call on the international community, especially the American government to speak up because Sowere is also an America citizen fighting for the betterment of our society.”
