Protesters Promise Peaceful Protests, Say We’re Rivers People, We Own Rivers State
• Insist nobody can tell them when, where and how they can gather
By PHC Telegraph
Defiant, angry and determined, demonstrators chased away from the streets on Monday morning by men of the Nigerian police are vowing to stage a comeback. They are saying this is their State and no one, not even the Sole Administrator has the right to tell them when, where or how to gather.
Many of the protesters who came out to protest against the cyber bill and to ask President Bola Tinubu to bring back Governor Siminalayi Fubara insist it is not over yet.
They are saying days after battle ready police teargassed them on the streets that they will be back.
“We won’t give up” one of them said to a Telegraph reporter, our voices will be heard. They cannot run things the wrong way and say we don’t even have the right to complain.
“Look at what the Sole Administrator is doing. He is demolishing what is left of our fledgling democratic structures, taking steps that are unconstitutional and daring the patience of the Rivers people. Should we keep quiet?”
“We are mobilising across Rivers State”, his colleague remarked, “we are telling our people to leave their homes and fight for freedom; we are saying protect your mandate, protect your democracy and protect your civic rights.”
Tiery Chetam Nwala, one of the organisers of the protest told journalists in Port Harcourt, “It is not over, we are coming back again.”
Nwala swore that protesters across the Rivers State would definitely reconvene and continue the fight to ensure that things are done the right way in Nigeria.
“The truth of the matter is that we must all realize that we are all Nigerians. No body is more Nigerian than the other.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not more Nigerian than any of us, he is only privileged to be our president and he cannot lead us in dictatorship.
“We will not stand and watch, we have a right to speak as a people, you cannot hold down our voice, protest is an international right of citizens of this world so you cannot stop it”, the activist stressed.
“But we are here”, he went on “to tell Rivers people that freedom is not free anywhere in the world.
“Today we are here, a democratic government that was elected by the people has been suspended and every other institutions of government in Rivers State and people are sitting down doing nothing, thinking everything will be fine.”
He said it was a great shame that the system acted bestially in suppressing the right of the people to protest freely and peacefully against bad governance.
Nwala’s warning is coming as more Nigerians become disillusioned with the Tinubu administration.
In Abuja, Lagos and Oyo states, young protesters poured unto the streets inspite of warnings by the police.
“This is not the renewed hope that we were promised. What we do have now is renewed pain”, a civil servant remarked in Port Harcourt, “It is so painful that a man who felt for the civil service, who felt the pulse of workers is being badly treated.”
Some of the time, journalists are caught in a cross fire while performing their duty. Those who covered the last protest in Rivers Statwere not spared either.
They were harassed and forced to inhale fumes of teargas fired by policemen who claimed that the day that protesters had declared as national protest day was for them, the national police day.
A Channels Television reporter was reportedly arrested by the police while performing journalistic duties.
The Telegraph understands that the Nigerian Union of Journalists promptly condemned the assault on its members.
Protesters are asking for the removal of restrictions on the use of the internet and an end to dictatorial tendencies that are becoming increasingly part of Nigeria’s democracy.