By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The organisers of EndBadGovernanceinNigeria Protest have vowed to go ahead with the plan protest of June 12, Urged Nigeria Police Force to respect the right to freedom of assembly.
This was disclosed in a statement jointly issued on Tuesday by Hassan Taiwo Soweto, Oloye Adeniji-Adegboyega on behalf of the Organising Committee #EndBadGovernance Movement Lagos State which stated that, “The #EndBadGovernance Movement Lagos wishes to encourage the Nigerian people to troop out in their thousands on Thursday 12 June 2025 being the officially-designated Democracy Day to peacefully protest the absence of genuine democracy in Nigeria and the hunger, hardship and gross inequality that have been the hallmark of the President Tinubu’s two years in power.
“As we have informed earlier, the take off point of the protest in Lagos state is Ikeja underbridge by 7:30am. We urge workers, artisans, youth, students, market men and women, okada riders, unemployed and all oppressed Nigerians to come out on that day and join us for the peaceful procession.
“We also want to urge the Commissioner of Police, Lagos state to respect our rights to freedom of assembly. We say this due to the unfolding development from the office of the Commissioner of Police in Lagos state. Last week, we wrote to notify the Commissioner of Police in Lagos state. Yesterday, organizers of the June 12 action received messages inviting them to a security meeting/interactive session with the CP by 11 am today Tuesday 10 June 2025 at the Police State Command, Ikeja Lagos. While all of us made sure to get to the venue at the appointed time in the company of our lawyers, we were shocked to see that the CP who invited us was nowhere to be found. “Instead, we were informed by his subordinates that he had gone to Oshodi on another assignment, specifically to provide security for President Tinubu’s motorcade as he departed Lagos for Abuja. After waiting for one hour, we left the State Command after reaching an agreement with the CP’s subordinates that if the CP still wants to meet with us, he could do so via zoom the next day since we had all left our jobs and other engagements to be there today.
“We were therefore surprised to receive another message this evening from the CP rescheduling the meeting to 4pm tomorrow Wednesday 11 June 2025 at his conference hall, Police State command in clear violation of the agreement reached. Our position is that we stand by the agreement reached earlier on Tuesday that any rescheduled meeting would be held via zoom. The purpose of this statement therefore is to alert the public that we are not averse to meeting with the CP ahead of the June 12 protest to discuss modalities for the police to discharge their duties of providing protection for protesters as provided for in the constitution. It was the CP who decided to be absent at a meeting he called and our position is that a rescheduled meeting should be by zoom and not a physical gathering at his office.
“Whatever happens, the public should please rest assured that the June 12 protest will go on regardless of any police intimidation. June 12 itself is historically a day of protest. Everything about the day stands for protest and resistance. First, it was the day, on 12 June 1993, that Nigerians in their millions trooped out to reject military dictatorship through the ballot. Secondly, when the result of that election was annulled, the Nigerian people trooped to the streets and over the following years engaged in a series resistance until the military boys were booted out.
“Unfortunately, 32 years after, Nigeria is neither truly democratic nor has any of the hope and aspiration of the Nigerian people in 1993 for economic and social upliftment being met. Instead, the Nigerian people in a state of monumental hopelessness and hardship today while all basic democratic rights and freedoms have been annulled by a civilian capitalist dictator, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is in protest at this as well as the IMF/World Bank neo-liberal economic policies of the Tinubu regime that we are calling on Nigerian people to come out en masse on June 12.”
