High debt profile: Stop borrowing, tackle mass killings, RevolutionNow tells Buhari
•Members of #RevolutionNow and policemen during a protest against bad governance and insecurity in the country in Lagos…on Wednesday. Photos: Olukayode JaiyeolaPoliticians can loot serial Chinese loans, movement warns
However, the country’s mounting debt profile featured in the anniversary as two of the movement’s conveners, in separate interviews with The PUNCH on Wednesday evening, said the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari , must halt further borrowings in order not to mortgage Nigeria’s future.Recall that a co-convener of the group, Omoyele Sowore, was arrested in August 2019 for planning the #RevolutionNow protest.
In the FCT, the group staged a protest at the Unity Fountain, Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday morning, carrying banners with various inscriptions such as, ‘Yes to living wage;’ ‘Free Lance Corporal Martin now;’ ‘N2.2 billion per kilometre for fence is unacceptable,’ and others.Those arrested were taken to the Eagle Square for arraignment before a mobile court, but they were released after the presiding Magistrate Idayat Akanni failed to show up.
Adeyanju noted, “The more loans we take, the more our currency is weakened and the harder it would be for us to service the loans because the debt management office is complaining that we can barely service the interest rates. Speaking to The PUNCH, another co-convener, Baba Aye, said, “We are not okay with the debt profile of Nigeria. When you talk of an economy that works for the masses and not a few, issues of debt profile and the Gross Domestic Product to debt profile apply to it.
Addressing the protesters earlier at the Unity Fountain, a lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, said there was a need for a leadership change, noting that Nigerians must take their destiny in their own hands. While the activists assembled at the fountain, the Joint Task Force on Enforcement of COVID-19 Restrictions swooped on them, forced them to lie on the ground and subsequently whisked them away.
He said that the protesters violated the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 guidelines on physical distancing, noting that most of them did not wear face masks. “The protest started around 9am but I stayed where the car was parked while he left for the protest. But he later called me with someone’s number to inform me that he had been arrested.”
An eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Rasaq, said some of the protesters ran into the Computer Village while the policemen gave them a hot chase.In a viral footage, Jalingo, while leading some of the protesters along the axis, was heard saying, “No matter how they arrest us, no matter how they chase us, we will not be afraid of their Black Marias, we will not be afraid of their rifles and teargas.
The protesters were led to the chapel by Olawale Bakare, who was tried alongside Sowore, for engaging in a protest organised by the group in 2019. One of the protesters, Oluwadunsin Olowolafe, who was addressing members of the group and people around, said the leadership of the country had not met expectations of Nigerians.
Olawale Bakare, the Coordinator, #RevolutionNow movement Osun State, in a statement dated August 5, 2020, made available to newsmen in Osogbo by a member of the group, lamented the collapse of critical sectors of the country. Adegoke said, “The DSS got an ex parte order to detain them for 14 days pending conclusion of investigation. A lawyer I sent there earlier brought back that report. The lawyer spoke with the director and they said he should talk to the legal officer.”The DSS on Wednesday arrested about five protesters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
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