Lagos, Nigeria’s business and financial engine-room, was yesterday groaning under a crippling protest by the militia group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).
Security agents looked the other way as the group’s members troubled the city, calling for the removal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The protesters were members of a faction of the OPC, led by Chief Gani Adams, one of those who have just won the controversial N9billion pipelines protection contracts. They were supported by an amorphos group – the Committee of Concerned Nigerians (CCN). Some Niger-Delta militants reportedly joined the protest.
The protesters got traffic stuck for hours, smashed cars, harassed motorists and disrupted business in many parts of the city.
They destroyed banners and camapign billboards of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates. The streets were strewn with the pamphlets they gave out to terrified residents and satchets of water they consumed.
“Had supportters of the APC reacted, the story would have been different,” an APC chief who watched the march said.
The protesters smashed their way through the major streets— from Berger at the entrance into the city from Ibadan through Ojota to Maryland where they converged before marching through Ikorodu Road to the National Stadium.
The protesters followed in the footsteps of their fellow ethnic militia group in the Southeast – the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) – whose members protested against Jega in Enugu, Owerri and Abakaliki last weekend.
The groups are believed to be sponsored by the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Commuters on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, the old toll gate and Ojota were stuck for hours.
More than 5, 000 people with over 50 buses under the aegis of “ Coalition of Concerned Nigerians” blocked a section of the road, distributing pamphlets and causing a traffic snarl that lasted for hours.
Lagos residents took to social media to vent their anger over the disruption of their lives by the protesting OPC members.
One Diced Pineapples queried the police for “protecting that kind of unjust rally, causing stupid traffic for ordinary people.”
Another citizen, Nike Fakorede, said: “It is the height of insanity. Ours is really a banana republic. Real shame.”
Adebayo Bukola twitted: “To the OPC niggasprotesting in Lagos, continue! We’ll soon have the video of how the protesters don’t know why they are there.”
To one Mimi, the protesters were just trying hard to stop a free and fair election, while Tinuola Akinola described the protest as “nothing but madness and solidarity with President Goodluck Jonathan to give them contract.”
Busari Folarori said the protest was “an animalistic behaviour as a result of joblessness, stupidity and lack of ambition.”
To Daddy Zee, it was simply lawlessness as guaranteed by the federal government in a desperate bid to retain power.
The two pamphlets distributed by the protesters had “7 reasons Why President Goodluck Jonathan must continue in office and 7 reasons why Prof Attahiru Jega, the INEC boss, must go on terminal leave and be replaced with a credible administrator before the elections”.
Some of the reasons given were that “President Jonathan is a humble leader, peace loving and tolerant, allowed Freedom of Information Bill (FBI) with no record of state or politically motivated killing during his first term and encouraged robust opposition, a tenet of democratic practice, which he stands for.”
Other reasons include that Jonathan is the only Nigerian leader that accepted the challenge of the call for national conference, set up a process which they claim APC leaders rejected and boycotted and also promoted gender representation and empowered more women to be actively involved in nation building and in the political process.
On why Jega must go, the publication reads: “Over 5 million people are yet to obtain their PVC in Southwest, over 2.5 million in Southsouth and 2 million in Southeast while Jega claims to have recorded 90 per cent distribution in the North, despite the high level of insecurity in the Northeast.
It also accused the INEC boss of illegal registration of under-age people in the North, registration of foreign nationals from Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroon, positioning northerners in the most sensitive INEC positions, creation of over 30,000 polling units, awarding the contract of sensitive INEC materials, such as PVC and ballot papers to foreign countries traced to opposition parties and plotting to create chaos and national unrest in the country by insisting to hold elections on February 14, when he is aware that 34 per cent of Nigerians, mostly from Southwest, are yet to obtain their PVCs.
Adams said he would mobilise members of the body to resist the move by Jega to stay beyond March 24 in office, adding that the INEC boss had lost credibility to conduct the polls. But, he did not give details of the planned resistance.
He said the OPC had lost confidence in the leadership of the commission to organise a free and fair elections.
Speaking to our reporter on the telephone after the march, Adams said: “We are protesting to let Nigerians know that INEC under the leadership of Prof Jega has lost its credibility. We have been monitoring INEC’s activities since it started voters’ registration and we come to the conclusion that the exercise is a failure.
“This is evident in the shoddy voters’ registration exercise during which Prof Jega allowed underage in the North to register. The distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) is also not encouraging and we have seen that the whole exercise is a failure. INEC cannot deny these facts.”
The protesters, who gathered at Berger, moved in a motorcade to the National Stadium in Surulere.
They rode in several commercial buses, singing anti-INEC songs.
Some of the protesters became lawless at Ojuelegba, destroying some campaign banners of APC candidates.
At stadium, the protesters did not touch any campaign banner, but swarmed the neighbourhood, sharing pro-Goodluck Jonathan handbills to motorists. All the routes leading to the stadium gn banners of APC candidates.
At stadium, the protesters did not touch any campaign banner, but swarmed the neighbourhood, sharing pro-Goodluck Jonathan handbills to motorists. All the routes leading to the stadium were blocked.
Some of the OPC men openly displayed charms and amulets to scare motorists.
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