The #EndSARS protests in Benin City took on the appearance of a carnival Saturday, with thousands of protesters converting part of the Benin-Lagos road under the pedestrian bridge by Ugbowo Main campus of the University of Benin into an open-air kitchen, where they cooked and ate jollof rice.
The protesters said the food was donated by an unnamed donor who shared in the ideals of the protest.
The demonstrators blocked the stretch of the Benin-Lagos road from the old toll gate end to Uselu Market, a distance of about nine kilometers, forcing travelers to make a detour to other routes to find their way in and out of Benin City.
One of the protesters, Taiye Alao, said: ‘What we are asking for is not just an end to SARS, we are saying Buhari must go, we are tired of his administration. The Buhari-led government should resign, we need to fix Nigeria. We are being oppressed in our own country, the politicians are oppressing us, we are in democracy and not democratic slavery, we can never be slaves in our own country.’
Meanwhile, the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Babatunde Kokumo, has ordered the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence a full scale investigation into the immediate and remote cause of Friday’s killing of a protester by gunmen.
In a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor, the Commissioner had ‘vowed to arrest the perpetrators of this dastardly act for prosecution in court accordingly.’
The statement added that the Commissioner ‘commiserates with the family members of the deceased for his untimely death and pray to God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. He, however, appeals to the #EndSARS protesters to end the protest and patiently wait for the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, to implement the police reforms.’ (The Sun)
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