Protesters thronged the Lokogoma expressway in Abuja on Saturday morning to cap the 10-day protests organised by the Take It Back movement. They marched to Galadimawa and ended the parade at Apo, chanting, “We are hungry.”
Members of the Take It Back movement, which declared 10 Days of Rage nationwide protests against economic hardship in Nigeria, criticised President Bola Tinubu’s unwillingness to accede to the demands of the masses. The protesters asked that fuel subsidy be reversed and electricity tariffs be lowered, among other demands.
Abiodun Sanusi, an activist at the protest ground, said it had become glaring that Mr Tinubu was not ready to “listen to the demands” of the people despite occupying the streets over the last 10 days.
He said the protesters were not deterred by the president’s inaction and that they would temporarily halt the demonstrations.
Mr Sanusi said protesters will return to the streets in a 10-million-people march should the president continue to disregard the demands of the people.
“Earlier on, we declared a 10-day of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now open to everyone that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians,” Mr Sanusi said in Apo, Abuja on Saturday.
“Today is the final day of the 10 days of rage but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we are coming back until he accedes to our demands,” Mr Sanusi stressed.
“We will come back to the streets and this time, we will be more than this. This time we will be declaring a 10 million people march across 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” he added.
Demonstrators carried placards with differing inscriptions like “Bring back corruption-free fuel subsidy,” “Rent must be monthly,” “Nigerians are tired of bad leaders,” and so on.
Security agents deployed lethal force to quell the 10-day demonstrations firing live bullets at journalists and protesters in Abuja, Kaduna and other states.
The Nigerian Army, on Tuesday, admitted to killing a teenage boy, Ismail Mohammed, by mistake during the protest in Samaru town in Zaria.
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