RENOWNED lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana has said that his son will protest on Wednesday, urging governments at various levels to allow the citizens to exercise their rights peacefully without Police intimidation.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said this at an event organised in Lagos by the African Centre For Media And Information literacy (AFRICMIL} headed by Chido Onumah, the author of the book, ‘We Are All Biafrans.’
The event was a commemorative lecture and public presentation of the book – ‘Remaking Nigeria: Sixty years, Sixty Voices’ by Onumah with the theme: ‘One Year After #ENDSARS,35 Years after Dele Giwa And The Quest To Remake Nigeria.’
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Falana was visibly angry at the attempt by the Police to stop the planned protest on the anniversary of #EndSARS scheduled for Wednesday across the nation.
“My son will protest tomorrow. He told me they said we should not protest but we will protest because I am a product of protest,” he said.
He also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of not allowing protests when he had participated in a protest before.
“Buhari and others protested with us before against Jonathan in 2012,” he said
Falana also talked about the #ENDSARS protest that grounded Nigeria in 2020. He said contrary to the claim by the Federal Government that nobody died during the Lekki shooting, there was strong evidence that many people were killed during the protest.
“In Lagos alone, people were killed. John Obafunwa, the renowned pathologist himself, said that out of the 99 bodies dumped at the Lagos mortuary, three were from the Lekki Toll Gate and 20 were brought from the prison and were marked as unknown.
“It is impossible for dead bodies from prison to be marked as unknown.”
In his address of welcome, chief host Chido Onumah eulogised the late Dele Giwa who was killed 35 years ago for doing his job as a journalist.
Other guests at the event were Pat Utomi, and Richard Akinola, among others.
A reporter with the ICIR
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