By Sunday Ehigiator
Men of the Department of State Services (DSS) and Nigerian Army on Monday morning stormed the venue scheduled for the consultative assembly between members of the Coalition for Revolutionary (CORE) movement and notable activists in Nigeria.
The event which was scheduled to hold Monday at the Logos Centre, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, was billed to be attended by Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof. Omotoye Olorede, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), Mr. Femi Aborishade, Com. Gbenga Komolafe, Barr. Affiong L. Affiong, and other notable groups such as, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Teachers Union Congress, Center for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), among others.
The matters to be discussed at the meeting themed ‘Democracy, State Repression and State of Insecurity in Nigeria’ are believed to be related to the #RevolutionNow movement and the arrest of its leader, Omoyele Sowore. However, according to reports, a combined team of police, military, and DSS invaded and sealed up the venue of the meeting scheduled for 11am, as early as 7am.
A jointly signed statement by CORE Co-conveners, Olaseni Ajai, and Baba Aye, said, “In the early hours of this morning a combined team of Police, Military, DSS invaded and sealed up the venue of our meeting schedule to hold by 11am this morning being Monday August 19, 2019.
“The owner of the event centre was denied access to his property and his resident staff whereby remains unknown. Innocent bystanders are been harassed and arrested in a gestapo manner.
“This is the response of a so-called civilian government to a symposium. No wonder the country is sinking deeper into crises.
“We remain focused and determined not to let anyone take away our rights. We have paid for the venue and the program is scheduled to start by 11am.
“The whole world needs to see the true face of this government and see the reason why we demand that there must be change. We stand on our grounds.
“Venue of symposium remains ‘The Logos Centre, Ikeja, Lagos’. And we won’t move the venue so we can expose the true colour of this government to the whole world.”
Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer at the time of filing in this report proved abortive, as he wasn’t picking his calls.
