#EndBadGovernance: No protest in Akure as youths harass lone protester

The planned hunger protest, which began in some parts of the country on Thursday, 1 August, did not hold in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

However, witnesses say a lone protester who dared to march along the NEPA area of the city, was harassed by a group of young men in the area.

The protester, whose identity was not immediately known, ran away from the scene and never returned for fear of being mobbed.

However, the ever busy Arakale and the Oja Oba market were deserted early in the day for fear of the unknown.

The popular Oba Adesida, Ondo, and Oyemekun roads located in the heart of the ancient city of Akure were empty without the usual vehicular or human traffic.

Also, all the government offices located at Alagbaka, including the Governor’s Office, were all without any activities.

Organisers of the hunger and #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria protest under the group named, Concerned Revolutionary Youths, had on Wednesday announced they were pulling out of the planned protest in Ondo State.

The Ondo State secretary of the group, Ogundipe Olaniyi, said they were pulling out following the interventions of prominent indigenes of the state.

Mr Ogundipe said the group was neither induced financially nor intimidated, but resolved to pull out of the planned protest due to the interventions and security reports that some groups were preparing to hijack the protest to settle ethnic scores.

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However, vehicular and human traffic increased in the city at noon and some shops started opening for businesses in the suburbs as the day went by.

Security personnel were seen positioned at strategic locations and at identified flash points to maintain law and order, but they idled away as there were no protesters to curtail.