#EndBadGovernanceInNigeria: Sowore accuses Nigerian govt of detaining protest leader over “Lenin” nickname

The Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 presidential election, Omoyele Sowore, said on Friday that the Nigerian authorities have continued to detain one of the leaders of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest, Michael Adaramoye, popularly called “Michael Lenin” simply because of his nickname.

Mr Adaramoye’s nickname, Lenin, is the last name of a Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, who served as the founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924.

“The Nigerian Govt is still detaining Michael Adaramoye, aka “Lenin”, because they said his nickname “Lenin” shows that he was the person behind the Russian flags distribution in the north during the ongoing,” Mr Sowore, founder of the Take It Back Movement, another group taking part in the protest, posted on X.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Adaramoye, the National Coordinator of the Youths Rights Campaign, was arrested from his home in the early hours of Monday allegedly by men of the State Security Services (SSS). But the SSS said later that day that the protest leader was not in its custody. He has not been released since then.

Protests

The #EndBadGovernance protest took place across the country from 1 August, turning violent in some Northern states and some protesters were seen waving Russian flags.

READ ALSO: #EndBadGovernance: Kano protesters speak about waving Russian flags

President Bola Tinubu said the government wouldn’t tolerate the waving of foreign flags. The State Security Service (SSS) already arrested multiple persons in Kano and Kaduna as part of investigations into the waving of the Russian flags. The arrests include seven Polish nationals, according to the SSS.

The police have also detained more than 30 suspects, including tailors, for sewing and waving the flags during the protests.