TIME TO FIGHT FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE. BY AYO ADEMILUYI

TIME TO FIGHT FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE. BY AYO ADEMILUYI

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE

DAY 39 OF #ENDOPPRESSION

3RD JULY, 2021

GOVERNOR SANWO-OLU BARE HIS FANGS AS LAGOS STATE POLICE COMMAND’S “SHOW OF FORCE” WITH WATER CANNONS AND TANKS CONFIRM  SIEGE ON LAGOS STATE FROM #ENDSARSMASSACRE TO #JULY3RD WITH COLLABORATION OF LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT

FOR SEVENTH WEEK OF ACTION FROM 3RD JULY TO 10TH JULY, 2021

NO REPRESSION OF 3RD JULY PROTESTERS

ALL OUT ON 7TH JULY FOR #OCCUPYNASS 2.0

TIME TO FIGHT FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE

I write to condemn the Governor  Babajide Sanwo-olu-Led Lagos State Government for the increasing siege on democratic rights of citizens in Lagos State.

This is manifested in the “show of force” by the Lagos State Police Command with display of water cannons and tanks to intimidate would-be “Oodua Nation Now” protesters for the July 3rd March holding today in Lagos.

In actual fact the water cannons and tanks being displayed by the Lagos State Police Command was bought by the Lagos State Government and handed over in a handing over ceremony by President Muhammadu Buhari during his Presidential visit to Lagos.

This collaboration between the Lagos State Government and the Lagos State Police Command in laying siege on the rights of citizens of the state did not start today but manifested itself heavily in the #EndSARS massacre. Apart from the ignoble Lekki Shooting which was precipitated by the declaration of curfew and request for military assistance by Governor Sanwo-olu, hundreds of youth across the state were mauled down at the barricades as the state battles to put down the uprising.

This siege of repression was again heavily deployed against the February 13, 2021 #OccupyLekki protests against reopening of the Lekki Toll Gate.

June 12 , 2021 marked another deliberate intimidation of citizens with many forced by the trauma of the shootings of October, 2020 to stay at home.

The refrain of ban on peaceful protests in Lagos State by the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu is now one too many.

I hereby put the whole world on notice that any harrasment and intimidation of peaceful protesters , today , 3rd July, 2021 will be put at the foot of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu.

Going forward, the “Oodua Nation Now” protesters must realise that they can only actualise their dreams of an egalitarian , mutually beneficial Oduduwa Republic within a pan-Nigerian working people’s revolutionary strategy of chasing out of power the draconian Buhari-led regime and all sections of the ruling elite including the likes of Sanwo-olu , Tinubu and the rest of their ilks of the Western Nigeria ruling elite.

It is on this basis I call on them to view today’s protests as the commencement of a broader pan-Nigerian mass movement embracing Oodua Nation Now agitators, Biafra Republic agitators , Revolution Now agitators and rank and file working class revolutionary activists and socialists to boot out of power as fast as possible the tyrannical Buhari-led regime and the entire capitalist ruling elite of all tongues and tribes.

This pan-Nigerian revolutionary mass mobilisation must be linked to the building of a broad mass working people’s political alternative founded on a clear cut socialist alternative programme.

We must also battle for genuine electoral reforms. It is in this light that I call for mass participation in the July 7 #OccupyNASS protests to the National Assembly and the 36 States’ House of Assembly, on the 28th  anniversary of the Anti-annulment protests of July 5 to 7 , 1993 .

Invariably, July 10, 2021 , the  22nd Anniversary of the killing of Great Ife Students butchered by cult agents of the state on July 10, 1999 should be used by the national students’ movement forces as a National Day of Solidarity Action against Kaduna Students’ Killings and to demand that the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress activate the mandate of the 22nd July, 2021 NLC NEC to proceed on a 24 hour warning general strike immediately.

A  series of nationwide general strikes  or at best a grassroots-based nationwide sit-at-home actions  is becoming increasingly urgent as the Buhari bares its brutish fangs increasingly.

AYO ADEMILUYI ESQ.,

Lagos,

09097933015