Scores of protesters under the aegis of Coalition of Civil Society groups, in conjunction with the Nigerian Lives Matter Movement on Thursday staged peaceful protests across parts of Abuja to register their displeasure with the increase of pump price to 162 Naira three weeks ago.
The group stormed Abuja to drive home their demands which included the reduction of the pump price which the Buhari administration recently hiked to a level many transporters and public commentators insist is economically frustrating.
A statement signed by the Convener of the groups, Roland Odih stated that the protest was peaceful even though some security personnel tried to scuttle it.
While condemning the security agencies for trying to stop the group from protesting, the convener noted that a supreme court’s judgement had ruled that Nigerians need no permit from the police to hold any protests.
A part of Odih’s statement read: “Today, the Coalition of Civil Society Groups, in conjunction with the Nigerian Lives Matter movement held a massive fuel subsidy protest at Unity Square to protest President Buhari’s increase of fuel price to 162 Naira.
The Supreme Court has ruled that Nigerians do not need a permit from the police to protest. Our protest was large but peaceful, yet men of the Department of State Security unleashed their harassment on us, arresting our members and attempting to disrupt our protests, which could not be stopped, due to the large crowd.”
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate unions have proposed to begin series of protests from Monday, 28th of September 2020.
