From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The deployment of police and Department of State Security Services (DSS) personnel, yesterday, foiled the planned protest by human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore and his group, at the headquarters of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja.
The group had slated the protest to register discontent with the detention of their members arrested last Sunday when they appeared in the church with T-shirts bearing #BuhariMustGo.
One of the protesters, who identified himself as Damilare Adenola, told Daily Sun that they converged at the church premises yesterday morning for the planned protest but were frustrated by heavy presence of security personnel.
“We were roughly manhandled by security forces to the point that they wanted to arrest some of us. We had to quickly restrategise with wisdom and then moved to the Galadimawa branch of the church to carry out the protest. We asked them to convey our message to the Senior Pastor of the Church, Dr. Paul Enenche, which they assured us they would do. We also informed them that if our detained comrades were not released by the end of next week, we would picket their churches across FCT.”
On Friday, Sowore announced that DSS and Pastor Enenche had been dragged to court over the prolonged and unlawful detention of five members arrested at the church headquarters in Abuja two Sundays ago for holding a symbolic protest.