OLAWALE Bakare and Agba Jalingo, Cross River-based journalist, have been arrested for participating in the RevolutionNow Protest on Wednesday.
Bakare was arrested alongside seven others participating in the RevolutionNow protest in Osogbo, Osun State capital.
They were arrested by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) while converging at the Correspondent’s Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Chapel in Osogbo.
Bakare and other protesters were whisked away from the scene of the protest by the armed SSS officers.
In Ikeja, Lagos State, Agba Jalingo, Femi Adeyeye and 13 other protesters were arrested by officers of the Nigeria Police during the protest.
The 13 other protesters arrested include, Omolara Alagbala, Kelly Orodu, Kolawole Adenekan, Fela Samson Okafor, Akinnubi Margaret and Orunsolu Oluremi.
Others include Oyebiyi Ademola, Oyebiyi Ademola, Owatunde, Akinnubi Deborah, Akinnubi Margaret, Akinnubi Emmanuel, Kehinde Babatunde Joseph, Adedoyin Olorunshola Truth, Rachael Ochuwa, Babatunde Famutimi, A king bade Olamide, Nonike Okechukwu, Sodiq Ogunshola.
The protesters were said to be held at Area F Police station in Lagos State.
In Abuja, however, protesters who were arrested Wednesday morning have been reportedly released.
Deji Adeyanju, a human rights activist who was part of the Abuja Revolution Now protest and reported that protesters were arrested, said they have been released.
“All Abuja comrades arrested earlier have been released. Aluta Continua,” Adeyanju wrote on Twitter.
The Revolution Now protest was started in August 2019, by Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, who was eventually arrested, detained and prosecuted alongside Bakare.
The Federal Government said Sowore was arrested because he was planning to overthrow a democratically elected government.
Jalingo, a critic of the Ben Ayade Cross Rivers State government administration was also detained and prosecuted for publishing an article against the governor.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has demanded for an immediate release of all protesters arrested during the protest.
Protest is a human right and no one should be arrested for exercising their right to freedom of assembly and speech,AI said on Wednesday.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94