The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a leader of the current #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The DSS picked up Micheal Lenin at approximately 2 a.m. on Monday at his home in the FCT’s Apo region.
Damilare Adenola, Director of Mobilisation for the Take It Back Movement, told our correspondent that the DSS raided Lenin’s house.
He alleged that the DSS also physically assaulted him during his arrest.
Adenola said, “Lenin has been arrested by the DSS. He was picked up during a raid on his house around 2am.
“He was arrested and tortured in the presence of his family. We are demanding his immediate and unconditional release.”
Lenin, the Youth Rights Campaign’s National Coordinator, was among the organisers who addressed a press event to voice unhappiness with President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast on Sunday.
During the briefing, he stated that the president’s broadcast demonstrated that he is out of touch with reality in the country.
He said, “We wish to express our sadness and deep disappointment at the latest broadcast by President Tinubu, which is his first address to the nation on the #EndBadGovernance protests, after over three weeks since Nigerians started mobilising to take to the streets and after scores of dead protesters and assaulted journalists from the first three days of the protests.
“Many had requested that the President should just address the nation when the protest was being mobilised and when it started to escalate, but most of us did not know that the President would only justify state violence on protesters and journalists while dismissing the demands of the protesters whenever he decides to speak.
“This, plus the failed attempt to co-opt the progressive and radical language of the protests, only shows how much President Tinubu is out of touch with the masses.“
Lenin, on the other hand, stated that the protest would continue on Monday and urged citizens to turn out en masse.
“We, therefore, call on Nigerians to come out in large numbers to continue these protests on Monday until our demands are met. The two-pronged approach of violence and propaganda has failed.
“The violence and repressions are just attempts to silence and control us, and the propaganda cannot sway or fool us.”
At the time of filing this report, the DSS had yet to comment on the arrest.
