Sahara Reporters Latest News Tuesday 6th August 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Tuesday 6th August 2019

Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 06/08/19

target=_blank>Defiant Sowore Speaks From DSS Detention, Assures Supporters Of Safety

Human rights crusader and convener of RevolutionNow movement, Omoyele Sowore, has spoken for the first time since his arrest in a Lagos hotel by operatives of the Department of State Services on Saturday morning.
The activist, who urged Nigerians to pour out to the streets to protest against bad governance in the country, was picked up and detained so as to scuttle the planned March in 21 states of the federation.
But further angered by the arrest of their leader, members of the movement mobilised aggrieved individuals and took to the streets of major cities despite heavy security presence aimed at stopping them.
During a visit by members of the Take It Back Movement to the DSS facility he is being held, Sowore, who had refused to eat meals given to him all along by the secret police, thanked Nigerians and the international community for their support, assuring everyone that he was in good health and has so far been treated fairly in detention.

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He said, “I would like to assure everyone that I am being treated well and in very good health.
“I am pleased that the peaceful #RevolutionNow protests went ahead.
“However, knowledge of the sheer number of innocent Nigerians being arrested for exercising their civil rights bothers me.
“I join others in demanding for the immediate and unconditional release of all those arrested by the police on Monday.”
Confirming that Sowore was in high spirits and happy that the planned protest went ahead despite his detention in DSS cell, Rachel Onamusi-Kpiasi, Director, Media and Communication of the movement, gave a detailed account of the meeting in a statement on Monday evening.

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The statement said, “At 6pm today, 5th August, 2019, members of the Take it Back Movement were allowed to visit with our convener, Omoyele Sowore, for the first time since his armed abduction in the early hours last Saturday, August 3.
“We met him in high spirits, unmoved by the events of the last few days.
“The officers allowed us to present him with food as Sowore had refused all meals since his capture.
“We are also happy to confirm that Take it Back members will be allowed to bring him food daily as per his wishes.
“The freedom fighter was quick to ask about the movement and supporters as he is aware that there will be a lot of worry about his wellbeing.

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CAUGHT ON TAPE: How Nigeria’s DSS Operatives Illegally Abducted Sowore

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“Indeed, the silver lining in today’s unrest lies in the knowledge that truly, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
“The Take it Back Movement will continue to agitate for his release as well as that of comrades whose voices this oppressive regime has tried to silence.
“This visit was a small win; but we will not rest until we are free and free indeed.”

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target=_blank>#RevolutionNow Protest: Group Condemns Sowore’s Arrest, Two others In Delta

The police and operatives of the Department of State Services, on Monday arrested two members of the civil society in Delta State.
The two men identified as Monday Ikrumale and Ugagaoghene Ogheneyole, participated in the #RevolutionNow protest, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore, who was arrested and detained by the DSS since Saturday in Lagos.
Ikrumale told Sahara Reporters that he is being held at the State Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, Asaba, Delta State.
When contacted over the arrests, Police Public Relations Officer in Delta, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, promised to get back to our correspondent on the matter but had yet to do so as at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged has condemned in its entirety Saturday’s arrest of Sowore by the DSS.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Oghenejabor Ikimi, the group noted that, “The attention of Centrep has been drawn to the recent arrest of Sowore by operatives of the Department of State Security Service over his call for a revolution.
“We call for his immediate release in order not to further heat the polity.
“Centrep notes with dismay that in the year 2011, General Muhammadu Buhari through his then spokesperson, Mr Yinka Odumakin, had called for a revolution in Nigeria following the mass protest and mass disobedience which brought down the regime of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
“Buhari had then commended the Egyptian Armed Forces for their refusal to forcefully quell the Egyptian revolution.
“It is for the above reason that Centrep calls for the immediate release of Sowore by the Federal Government from the custody of the DSS.
“We believe that revolutions do not take place by just placing a call for same.
“A revolution is a spontaneous mass protest by people against a sitting government or authority.”

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target=_blank>We Will Allow Zakzaky Travel Abroad For Medical Treatment – DSS

El-Zakzaky, leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria

The Department of State Services has said it will grant Ibrahim El-Zakzaky a leave to get medical treatment following a court order.
A Kaduna High Court on Monday had ordered the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to release the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and his wife, Zeenat, so that they could seek medical treatment in India.
Dr. Peter Afunanya, Public Relations Officer of DSS in a statement, said the agency was working with other relevant agencies to ensure compliance with the court.
He said, “This is to inform the public that the Department of State Services has received the order granting Ibrahim El-Zakzaky leave to travel to India for medical treatment.
“Consequently, the Service is liaising with relevant stakeholders to ensure compliance.
“Conformity with the order is in line with the Service’s avowed commitment to the rule of law inherent in a democracy.”

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target=_blank>DSS Arrests Ex-Daily Trust Editor Over Facebook Post Endorsing #RevolutionNow Protest

Operatives of the Department of State Services have arrested Dan-Halilu, a former Politics Editor at Daily Trust newspaper, for endorsing the #RevolutionNow protest.
Dan-Halilu was picked up in his room after writing a post on his Facebook timeline, endorsing the protest.
Dan-Halilu was a staunch supporter of President Muhammadu before the 2015 elections.
The post reads: “I feel I should share because it resonates with me. If (it) resonates with you too, please share until all oppressed people of Nigeria get the message and domesticate it. This is #not the Nigeria of my dream.
“Somebody asked me why we need a revolution now, this was my reply: The aim of the revolution is to challenge the uncommon hardship (and) why we have 16m children on the street; challenge why we have become the poverty capital of the world; challenge why we have 20 persons with corrupt cases as federal legislators and would-be ministers.
“We need to restructure the country. We need to put an end to trillions spent on electricity while we live in darkness and pay the estimated bill for electricity and meters. Why do we have huge oil reserves but our refineries are dead and we are re-importing what we exported as crude oil? It is time to ask why those in government travel abroad for medical care when they have left our hospitals dilapidated; why they send their children to school abroad when our children learn under mango trees.
“We are revolting against the continuing killings that have left 20,000 Nigerians dead while those in an office move around under state-paid security and do nothing. We are revolting against this because over a thousand Nigerians soldiers killed by Boko Haram have been secretly buried without identifiable graves, dignity or honour. $16m was purportedly spent on mosquito nets but our children die daily from malaria. $320m Abacha loot was purportedly distributed to the poor. Where is the verifiable list? N500bn was purportedly distributed to the poor as so-called Trader-Moni. Where is the verifiable list?
“…With divine grace, God gave us about 40 natural resources spread across the length and breadth of the country. No country on mother earth is as blessed! The persons destroying Nigeria in and out of government are less than 10,000. For how long will the 201 million of us be silent? Forever? It will be sheer stupidity and very unfair of us to be silent and bequeath today’s sorry Nigeria to our children. For how long shall we continue to endure bad leadership from certificate forgers, election riggers, ritualists and yahoo politicians, hoping upon hope for a better tomorrow when things get worse by the day? We are too rich to be poor. We are too blessed to be a mockery of the world!!! No!!!”
A security source, who spoke to PRNigeria in confidence, confirmed that DSS operatives had invited the former DailyTrust Editor for interrogation on why he endorsed the protest.
He said, “Contrary to the speculation going round, DSS just wants to get some necessary clarification from Mr Dan-Halilu on vital security issues. That’s all and nothing more.”
The #RevolutionNow protest held in major cities across the country today.
The protest started peacefully until police personnel begin to clampdown on the protesters by firing tear gas and randomly arresting protesters and journalists covering the protest.
Over 20 people were arrested across the country.

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target=_blank>Our President Has Gone ‘Mad’ Again By Erasmus Ikhide

The arrest of human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore, by operatives of the Department of State Services as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, further explains the former military general’s oppressive and tyrannical nature against free press and constructive criticism. Strictly speaking, the President has gone mad again!
We have been here before under Buhari’s inhuman government as Head of State. Then, Buhari ruled the country with maximum brutality against dissenting voices with the obnoxious, infamous and draconian ‘Decree Four’ that forbids journalists and media houses to report or publish anything negative about his military regime. Now, Buhari, in a democracy, has abandoned the nation’s constitution that accommodates free speech and association, hunting citizens who are insisting and demanding for governance with human face.
It’s never that Nigerians ever believe that Buhari, who ruled the nation with iron fist as a military dictator between 1983 and 1985, would ever change his colour. Nigerians know that Buhari’s ethnic proclivities and religious extremism can never change. They only assumed that having serially lost elections, he could at least fight the endemic corruption as witnessed under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
But Nigerians did not take into account the fact that a nation cannot have proper democracy with a leader like Buhari. Many did not know that for democracy to flourish, the principle of the rule of law must never be compromised.
The DSS invasion of Sowore’s apartment in the early hours of Saturday with four trucks, seizing his phones and other electronic gadgets, is President Buhari’s desperate and calculated attempt to muffle legitimate and authentic voices of the Nigerian masses, who are at the receiving end of their directionlessness. It’s now clear to many people that his administration has pushed the nation to the edge.
How did Sowore’s arrest help the cause of Buhari’s deceptive government that thrives on propaganda and disinformation? Where did Sowore offend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for spearheading nationwide demonstrations to protest against bad governance in Nigeria under Buhari’s failed government? Is it wrong to call for redirection in a failed government via national and international campaign when such government has virtually collapsed?
It’s glaring that Buhari has murdered democracy; adopted rule of the thumb, aborted her own electoral promises, introduced primitive nepotism and archaic bigotry and authoritarianism.
From the outset, President Buhari never showed determination to fix Nigerian’s unresolved financial misdemeanour. He refused to truthfully tell Nigerians what happened to the report on the $43m discovered in an apartment at Osbourne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. He couldn’t tell Nigerians what happened to the allegation of award of $25bn contracts without following due process made against Dr Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by former Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.
Presently, Nigeria is sinking on account of insecurity. Boko Haram has taken over the entire northern region of the country. Criminal gangs have taken over nearly all the 19 states in the north with 12 local government areas in ruins in Buhari’s home state of Katsina. This is aside from Fulani gangs kidnapping, raping and slaughtering defenceless Nigerians on theirs farms, houses and on highways every day.
President Buhari’s claim that his government has lifted five million Nigerians out of poverty is laughable. Latest statistics shows that over 13 million Nigerian children are out of school, the highest in the world. President Buhari’s government has refused to take pre-emptive action on the report that Nigeria would face hunger in a few years from now as a result of Fulani herders open declaration of war on farmer across the country.
Buhari’s pretences about national security is nothing more than regime security to protect and keep his ineptness, sectional and fraudulent government in power in his own personal interest and that of the entire northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is the basis for Nigeria’s unity so that northern Nigeria will keep pillaging and squandering southern oil wealth. Buhari and the desperate All Progressives Congress leadership are merely racing against time. Nigeria’s implosion is imminent, either now or later.
Ikhide wrote in via ikhideerasmus@gmail.com

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E2%80%99s-detention-it%E2%80%99s-great-controversy-good-versus-evil-bayo-oluwasanmi target=_blank>Sowore’s Detention: It’s The Great Controversy Of Good Versus Evil By Bayo Oluwasanmi

Ahead of the #RevolutionNow nationwide protest which rocked Nigeria on Monday, August 5, 2019, Omoyele Sowore, leader of the movement, was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Security in his hotel room. For almost 59 years, Nigerians with their own approval and applause have subjected themselves to self-inflicted apathy, cultivated timidity, paranoid fear, and criminal complacency to the gloating of their oppressors. But times are changing.
Nigerians are known for their traditional despair fuelled by divide and rule tactics of their oppressors. The condemnation of Sowore on social media by the traitors among the oppressed reminds me of Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil for pittance.
History of resistance, protests, agitation, and rebellion against injustice, neglect, oppression, cruelty, and tyranny are well documented in the history of political oppression.
Cataclysmic events of history produced beneficent change – change of ideas, values, consciousness, liberty, and freedom. The time is now for oppressed Nigerians to defy despots of any stripe, shape or size and free themselves from poverty, oppression, insecurity, fear, want, disease, ignorance, meaningless, wasted and unfulfilled life.
At this juncture of our political history, we should remind ourselves that history is one endless massacre stretching back to the dawn of mankind. Wherever we are in history, we stand on a mountain of corpses – and, however terrible the thought, we are the beneficiaries of all this carnage.
We must therefore push ahead impatiently for necessary changes and reforms. We are moving from resistance to aggression, from revolt to revolution. Every protest or resistance or uprising has some notion of redemptive suffering. Somehow, someday, we must be liberated in a new order.
We must be prepared to accept the price of suffering that will have to be paid in overthrowing the status quo. We must resolve to unleash our raw energy in organising not agonising, in demanding what is legitimately due to us, in challenging and fighting the oppressive political system that is ruining our lives.
History informs us that martyrs, who lived, suffered, died, passed on the torch of truth in every country of the world. The flame lit then is a roaring furnace today. Nothing in the world is going to intimidate, coerce, subdue, subjugate, and stop the Sowores of this world. #RevolutionNowis here to stay. No man born of a woman can abort #RevolutionNow.
The great controversy between good and evil will increase in intensity in the days ahead. In all ages, the wrath of oppressed people served as incinerator for the tragic end of dictators.
The controversy between light and darkness have a new significance cast upon our future: illuminating the pathway of generations of reformers to come. Nigerians must wake up from their stupor and fight for what’s right, legal, constitutional, and moral in the face of unprecedented assault and siege from a clueless, brainless, “lifeless” despot. Let’s go there!
Bayo Oluwasanmi wrote in via bjoluwasanmi@gmail.com

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target=_blank>CACOL Condemns Sowore’s Arrest, Demands Unconditional Release

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has called for the unconditional release of human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore.
Coordinator for the group, Debo Adeniran, in a statement on Monday said, “CACOL as a civil anti-corruption organisation does not support violent take-over of government, especially under a democratic or people-oriented arrangement where elections are periodically organised to choose who lead the massed under a free and transparent atmosphere, devoid of any travesty of sanctity of people’s collective will.
“Against this background, we strongly believe that for Nigeria to actually make progress and reclaim its primal position in the comity of modern nations, the current government should heed the call for a resort to the various outcomes of deliberations and resolutions on the contentious national issues like: resource control, state or regional police, foreign policy, and even the making of a truly people-oriented constitution for the over 250 ethnic nationality groups in Nigeria.
“We believe that no short-cut exists towards achieving this than the convocation of a sovereign national conference which decisions must be binding and sovereign by the very agreement of all age-long issues of altercation and relevance within the Nigerian state.
“We believe that it is never too late to retrace the footpath of the country if and when everything shows clearly that we have since lost our path as a society.”

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target=_blank>#RevolutionNow: President Buhari Has Shown Real Terrorism, Say Organisers

The Coalition for Revolution (CORE), organisers of the #RevolutionNow protest, have said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has proven beyond reasonable doubt “how low it can go in displaying its tyrannical and despotic nature”.
Reacting to the harassment and intimidation of protesters on Monday, Seni Ajai, co-convener of the movement, in a statement said that the act of intimidation was condemnable.
He said, “At about 7am on Monday, the premises of the Media Lab in Ikeja GRA that houses Sahara Reporters Media Foundation was under siege by policemen and DSS operatives.
“This act of intimidation prevented workers in their numbers from going about their legal duties of investigative journalism, civic engagement and policy advisory.
“This act of intimidation and harassment is condemnable in a democratic setting.
“But despite the unreasonable threats by all state apparatus, the RevolutionNowmass protests was successful in over 14 cities, locally and internationally.
“Nigerians trooped out in their thousands to express their displeasure at the poor living conditions this administration like other previous ones keeps inflicting on them. The international cities are London, Ireland, Berlin, Geneva and New York.
“The streets of Nigeria were heavily militarised like there was war. We won’t be wrong if we said war was declared against oppressed Nigerians expressing their anger in a civil way.
“A protester in Lagos was shot in the leg while 32 others were brutalised, beaten and injured by a combination of armed-to-the-teeth security operatives.
“A total of 55 Nigerians (30 in Ogun, nine in Lagos, two in Ore, two in Calabar, four in Oshogbo, three in Ibadan, five in Benue) have been arrested as at the last count.
“As of the moment, we are yet to confirm the number of indiscriminate arrests in several other cities as the police started arresting sympathisers and passers-by in a gestapo manner.”

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target=_blank>RevolutionNow: Police Refuse To Release SaharaReporter’s Journalist

Victor Ogungbenro, SaharaReporters journalist being brutalized

The Nigeria Police Force has said it cannot release SaharaReporters’ correspondent and other protesters arrested at the national stadium in Lagos on Monday.
Victor Ogungbenro, a video editor and cameraman, alongside eight other protesters were manhandled and arrested during the RevolutionNow protest.
The detainees were first held at Area C police station before they were transferred to the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Lagos.
According to Effiong Inibehe and Stanley Imhanruor, the human rights lawyers who went to secure the detainees’ bail at Panti Police Station, the police insisted they cannot release them.
The lawyers have been asked to return to the station tomorrow.
Victor Ogungbenro, a video editor and cameraman, was beaten and dragged on the ground by the police.

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SaharaReporters Journalist, Others Detained At Panti Police Station

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Another SaharaReporters’ correspondent in Ondo was also arrested.
The police clamped on RevolutionNow protesters across the country on Monday.
Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of SaharaReporters and the arrowhead of the RevolutionNow protest, was arrested from his residence in Ikeja at the early hours of Saturday, by operatives of the Department of State Services.
He was whisked to Abuja over the night on Saturday. He has been excommunicated since his arrest.
Sowore’s arrest was in relation to his involvement with the protest.
According to the DSS, Sowore was arrested for calling for a revolution.
Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector General of Police, also dabbed the protest as an act of terrorism.
He warned that anyone arrested in connection with the protest would be charged for treasonable felony.
The organizers of the protest, defy the police and went ahead with their protest at various locations on Monday.

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#RevolutionNow: Protest To Continue On Tuesday, Say Organisers

Civil society organisations and members of #RevolutionNowmovement have vowed to continue the protest on Tuesday after Monday’s march was characterised by harassment and arrests of participants by security agencies.
In Lagos, the police fired tear gas at protesters and arrested over 10 persons in the process.
The development caused panic in most parts of the city with human and vehicular movement affected by the situation.
The decision to resume the protest on Tuesday was reached after members of the movement converged at another venue.
Kunle Wizeman Ajayi, one of the leaders of the movement, said they would not be deterred and will continue to press their demands for a better Nigeria.

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BREAKING: DSS, Police Stop ‘RevolutionNow’ Protest In Osun

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He said, “We have just begun. President Muhammadu Buhari should know that his bullets couldn’t stop us because Nigerians did not vote for him to shoot them.
“The protest would continue tomorrow (Tuesday), we will relocate the venue and inform our people.
“On this note, we are demanding the immediate release of Sowore, Sanyaolu Juwon, and all others arrested at the scenes of the protest across the country.”

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