Metro
DSS arrests lone protester at Presidential Villa
A human rights activist, Malcolm Omirhobo, who embarked on a lone protest at the gate of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, has been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
According to Nigerian lawyers, Omirhobo who is a Lagos-based lawyer, embarked on the one-man protest on Wednesday to register his displeasure at the killing of 43 farmers in Zabarmari community, Jere local government area of Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents and the government’s lackadaisical handling of insecurity in the country.
Omirhobo, who reportedly arrived the Villa Gate at about 9:00 a.m. clad in a customised T-Shirt with the legend “Stop The Genocide,” was in company of some journalists who were to cover the protest.
But despite brandishing permissions he got from the police for the protest, Omirhobo was arrested by DSS officers who, according to reports, stormed the scene in a Gestapo style.
A journalist who was at the scene said:
“An argument ensued in the process as the lawyer insisted on seeing President Muhammadu Buhari in order to tell him to stop the carnage and the senseless killing of Nigerians in the country.
READ ALSO: DSS arrests ex-Aso Rock staff for alleged $50,000 fraud
“The police put a call to one of their superior officers who appealed and pacified Omirhobo to write a formal letter if he wanted to have an audience with the President, but he refused, and insisted that it was his right to see the President even without writing him officially.
“Trouble, however, started when armed DSS officials arrived at the scene and descended on the activist and harassed the journalists covering the scene.”
Omirhobo, who addressed journalists shortly before he was whisked away by DSS, said:
“Coming on the heels of the slaughtering of 110 farmers in Borno State, I am here to tell the President that enough is enough. He should stop playing the ostrich because the government is backing all the evils perpetrated by these evil people killing innocent and harmless Nigerians.
“I am saying it categorically that the government is conniving, conspiring and assisting this crime against humanity, and that is why I am here to protest. I came here now, but the officers are saying that I cannot exercise my rights.”
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...