Protests not over – Abuja residents
From Sola Ojo, Abuja
Following the calm that greeted day four of the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests in most parts of the country, residents of Nyanya in the Abuja Municipal Area Council told the Daily Sun on Sunday that the protests are not over.
According to some of them, President Bola Tinubu’s address was devoid of substance that could make them call off the protests; thereby, they vowed to continue on Monday.
On Thursday, 1 August, Nyanya was one of the troubled areas in the Federal Capital Territory where law and order were disregarded by angry protesters before the arrival of security personnel who brought the situation under control.
A trader at the popular Mopol Junction, Nyanya, Abubakar Yahaya, said he did not regret joining the protests even though he could not make any sales on the first two days of the protests because of his location.
He said: “Today, we are only relaxing. We will reconvene tomorrow to continue the protests. We thought President Tinubu would tell us immediate measures to reduce pump prices, the foreign exchange rate and reduce the prices of foodstuffs to alleviate hunger.
“But since his lengthy speech could not convince us that he and his team were ready to reduce hunger and unemployment, we will continue with the protest even though we have passed our message to him since day one.”
To Alex, a taxi driver: “I think a lot of people are using their heads after the violent demonstrations we witnessed around Nyanya on Thursday. It was a terrible experience. They almost burnt my car,” he lamented.
A civil servant who spoke in confidence after refuelling his car at the NNPC fuel station, Nyanya, said: “We thank God that the NNPC is selling even though they were being careful with the number of vehicles they allow to come in.
“I have to do this because we don’t know what tomorrow, Monday, being a working day, will look like, especially for civil servants like me.
“Meanwhile, I knew that it was not over yet. People are saying the protest must continue because they were not convinced by Tinubu’s address today.
“I just hope that the security agents have that intelligence so they can also be ready because experience has shown that it is innocent Nigerians that will suffer the consequences of such violent protests.”