DSS allegedly arrests activist over call to continue protest

Operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, have allegedly arrested Micheal Lenin, one of the leaders of the ongoing protest against bad governance and hardship in Nigeria.

Lenin was said to have been picked up around 2 am on Monday at his residence in the Apo area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

Disclosing the arrest to newsmen, Director of Mobilisation, Take It Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, said Lenin’s house was raided by the DSS.

“Lenin has been arrested by the DSS. He was picked up during a raid on his house around 2 am.

“He was arrested in the presence of his family. We are demanding his immediate and unconditional release“, he said.

It was gathered that Lenin had criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s broadcast on Sunday, saying that the President’s address to the nation meant ‘he is out of touch with reality in the country’.

“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.

“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,” he said.