Protest organisers split, say members bribed to sabotage rally

The #EndBadGovernance protest, which began in major cities across the country on Thursday may be losing steam following a division among leaders of the major groups mobilising Nigerians for the mass demonstration.

Some of the organisers accused the Federal Government of financially inducing some members to sabotage the protest and weaken its strength after threats from the police and military failed to stop the movement.

Sunday According gathered that the crack within the camp of the protest organisers became evident on Friday, when their lawyer, Ebun Adegboruwa SAN, called for a suspension of the protest, citing the killings and looting recorded on day one of the protest.

In a statement on Friday, Adegboruwa said the violence necessitated the need for the protesters and their leaders to withdraw and give room for dialogue with the government.

He stated, “Given that the protests were said to have been hijacked by sponsored agents, it is necessary to avoid further losses and casualties. The organisers of the protests and their representatives should embrace dialogue with the government.”

However, a former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, dismissed Adegboruwa’s position, saying the learned silk only spoke for himself.

“No, it is his personal opinion and he’s spoken only, based on his understanding of how the narrative was being twisted,” he said.

Also, a leading mass mobilisation groups, Take It Back Movement, distanced itself from Adegboruwa.

The Director of Mobilisation for the Take It Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, said Adegboruwa does not speak for them.

In a tweet shared on his verified X handle on Saturday, Adenola said, “Our protest extends for the next 10 days and beyond! Learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Adegboruwa is not our lawyer, he doesn’t speak for us! Abuja people, your comrades in the struggle are already converged at the National Stadium as we speak, join them! This fight is our fight, not their fight!”

Speaking with our correspondent on Saturday, the legal adviser to the Take It Back Movement, Festus Ogun, also disagreed with Adegboruwa’s position, saying only a national broadcast from President Bola Tinubu would take the protesters off the streets.

Ogun said, “The protest is beyond one individual; it is a movement of the people, a movement of common Nigerians. We respect his (Adegboruwa) opinion, and we respect his advice, but the issue is not about Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa; the issue is about the President, who is acting as if he can’t hear Nigerians.

“If we back down at this time, it shows that we are a conquered people. The President has not spoken, he has not given us reasons to back down. The protest is a pro-people movement, so if anybody collects money from the authorities, the person is just collecting money for himself. Anyone that is given money is only given money for himself because it is a pro-people movement and not an organisation.”

But another group, Timely Intervention, backed Adegboruwa’s call, asking other civil society groups to pull out of the protest following the violence recorded in some states.

Speaking to our correspondent on Friday, a member of the executive board of the organisation, Tunde Phillips, said, “I am just leaving the protest venue in Abuja right now, and our group has agreed to suspend the protest. It has become too violent. For instance, today, I would have been shot if not that I ran fast. Some people, I am sure, would have been injured, if not killed. The protest should be suspended.”

Another group that was part of the early mobilisers for the protest, Active Citizens Group, also backed Adegboruwa’s position.

A member of the groups’ National Working Committee, Adaeze Onoja, said the executive members decided to pull out because the protest had been hijacked by hoodlums.

“Hoodlums have hijacked the protest. We are pulling out. I just left an emergency NWC meeting and that was our decision,” she said in an interview with the Sunday According.

Meanwhile, in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, the National Chairman of the Northern Comrades Movement of Nigeria, one of the groups spearheading the protests in the North, Jabir Yaro, said the mass action was losing ground because some organisers had been allegedly bribed to disorganise it.

He said, “There are individuals, who have been paid to disorganise this protest, and these are the people causing problems and division. The only significant thing is that our leader, Ibrahim Abdulkarim, was arrested while engaging in a peaceful protest but we are following it up.”

Also, one of the leaders of the protest in Osun State, Emmanuel Olowu, alleged that the federal government committed funds to discredit the demonstration.

Olowu, who is the Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in the state, said the groups claiming to be pulling out or dissociating themselves from the protest were pro-government.

He said, “Before the commencement of this struggle, some people have been addressing press conferences to dissociate themselves from it. Some others have also claimed they are pulling out from the protest. These sets of people were never part of us. They are pro-government reactionaries. They have been compromised by the government against their conscience.”

However, Ogun insisted that no amount of financial inducement by the government would stop Nigerians from continuing with the mass action.