#EndSARS: Oil Magnate Decries Harassment by Security Agents

#EndSARS: Oil Magnate Decries Harassment by Security Agents

Sunday Okobi

A Lagos-based businessman, Mr. Moemeke Fidelis has alleged that security operatives had been visiting his residence due to his involvement in the #EndSARS protest, a role guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution.

Fidelis, an oil magnate and a property developer, made this allegation in a statement he issued yesterday, narrating his ordeal in the hand of security agents.

He claimed that he had lost his peace since the protest against police brutality ended in the country in the Lekki shooting that allegedly claimed lives on October 22.

He added that the security agents had been harassing him, his wife, family members and domestic workers because of the role he played during the protest.

He said: “I actually got involved in the #EndSARS protest that took place in October 2020, because I had been a victim of SARS brutality before the protest erupted.

“My house, being closed to the Lekki toll gate where the protest was held, was opened for the protesters to keep their food, drinks and blankets because they were sleeping at the toll plaza during the protest.

“Many leading members of the protest used my house to change clothes, freshen up, among others,” Fidelis acknowledged in a statement.

He explained that when the military came to the Lekki toll gate where there was a shootout which affected many protesters; he was there.

He added that his crime was that he allowed citizens, who exercised their constitutional rights to use his compound in Lekki for their activities, pleading with Nigerians and the government at different levels to come to his rescue.

Fidelis said: “Afterwards, security agents went after every other protest leader that was involved in the #EndSARS protest, they came to my house three times to look for me.

“The third time they came to my place, which was November 20, 2020, they met my wife, children and mother in-law at home, and harassed them because they couldn’t find me, and in the process, my mother in-law was seriously injured, an injury, which she might not survive from.

“They beat up my security guard and my wife; destroyed my house and traumatised my family members who are yet to recover. Since then, I’ve been hiding in my country while the search for most protesters still continues.”

He, thus, urged Nigerians and the governments “to come to our rescue. We don’t really know what else to do, since the protest had ended and panels have been set up across the country to put police brutality to rest.”

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