… We’ll occupy National Assembly till Friday –Protesters

From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja

COALITION of Civil Society groups sitting-out at the National Assembly has decided to stay-put until Friday, saying only news of the passage of the 2016 budget would lead to an earlier exit from the entrance of the assembly complex.

The groups stormed the National Assembly on Tuesday carrying placards some of which read “Fed­eral Lawmakers working against Nigerians”, “Revo­lution will not be televised” even as they demanded a higher level of transparency from lawmakers.

The protest which saw groups arriving with mo­bile toilets, cooking utensils and canopies led to security agencies locking the main gates to the assembly com­plex to prevent the protest­ers from getting to the sec­ond gate.

The situation remained the same yesterday with lawmakers and assembly staff using either one of the gates in the Presidential Vil­la or the gate of the office of the Secretary to the Gov­ernment of the Federation.

Investigations showed that a number of those who participated in Tuesday’s protest slept under the can­opies they erected, while others slept on mats spread near the canopies.

Speaking with Daily Sun, one of the leaders of the protest reiterated that they planned to stay until Friday and to reassess their plans on that day to agree on the next line of action.

“The first phase of our occupation is for four days, that is, from Tuesday to Fri­day. However, the Nigerian people will decide what we will do next, they are the people funding us, they have been feeding us and the feedback we are getting is that, they are willing and ready for us to stay back,” said Redson Tereke one of the conveners of the pro­test.

Tereke also listed the demands of the protesters to include the passage of the budget, a return of the Toyota SUVs supplied the Senate and a publication of the budget of the National Assembly.

He, however, said it would be wrong to tag him and others anti-Saraki, as though they believe the Senate President should re­sign over his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tri­bunal, their demands were more about having a trans­parent and people oriented National Assembly.