ORGANISERS of the October 1, 2024, nationwide protest in Lagos State said there is no going back on the peaceful demonstration.  

The group confirmed this on Monday, September 30.

According to the organisers, the #FearlessInOctober protest will be held under the Ikeja Bridge in Lagos.

“We have been doing a lot of activities, we held a press conference last week.

“The protest will be held tomorrow at Ikeja under the bridge. It will start at 7.30 am tomorrow,” one of the protest leaders told The ICIR.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has maintained that the court directive restricting protests to two designated venues in the state would stand.

The ICIR reports the state government secured a court order restricting protesters to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park and the Peace Park in Ojota during the 10-day #EndBadGovernance protest held between August 1 and 10, 2024.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, could not comment on the command’s preparedness for the planned October 1 protest when contacted via WhatsApp on Monday.

He also could not confirm some of the locations the command considered as flashpoints for violence.

However, The ICIR gathered that the police in the state had started deploying and barricading some roads off the Awolowo Road that leads from one end of Alausa, the state secretariat, to the other end at Ikeja’s new garage to forestall violence.

A former presidential candidate and activist, who is one of the protest leaders, Omoyele Sowore, said on his X platform on Monday that the protest would be held across the country.

“No going back #FearlessInOctober,” he wrote.

Sowore also confirmed this to The ICIR in a telephone interview.

“The protest is set to hold tomorrow. We are mobilising our foot soldiers across the country. By tomorrow, we will hit the streets,” he stated.

When asked how long the protest would be held, he said his team would appraise the situation at the end of the first day of the protest and make a further directive.

Similarly, in a video shared on his X handle, Sowore vowed that the protest would be held at the Eagles Square Abuja, adding that it would be peaceful.

In an interview video he shared on his handle, Sowore insisted that the protests would be held nationwide.

“I will emphasise again that these will be peaceful protests, as they’ve always been. The last protests were peaceful, yet the government met the protesters with batons and bullets.

“We will not be deterred, though. Our only weapon is truth, and no amount of force or violence will prevent us from speaking truth to power,” he said.

Sowore stressed that hunger pangs have spread across the country, and Nigerians needed to troop out nationwide in protest against President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s policies.

“Under these circumstances, can anyone be surprised that the Nigerian people want to voice their displeasure with this government’s failure to address the issues affecting them?

“We are prepared to come out to protest. We are determined to do so peacefully.  I can assure you that thousands of voices will be raised in protest on October 1,” he said.

The pangs of hunger and groans of pain of the Nigerian people will not be drowned out by the government, Sowore added.

The ICIR reported how the police, alongside other security forces, tear-gassed and shot at armless protesters and journalists, particularly in Abuja and Kano during the #EndBadGovernance protest in August.

In some states, thugs and hoodlums were seen hijacking the protests to loot government properties, leading to arbitrary arrests and the detention of several demonstrators.

Currently, about 10 leaders and organisers are being arraigned at the Federal High Court In Abuja for alleged treason, inciting mutiny and intent to destabilise Nigeria.

Dozens of other protesters are also in prison who cannot meet their bail conditions.