Sowore, others entitled only to legitimate protests, says APC chair Adams Oshiomhole

Following the arrest of the conveners of the anti-President Muhammadu Buhari protests on Monday under the umbrella of Global Coalition for Security and Democracy, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has affirmed that citizens have the right to protest but must properly articulate their grievances.

Specifically, leader of the group and candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 23, 2019 presidential election, Omoyele Sowore, was last weekend seized by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and is still being held over alleged calls for a nationwide protest against ‘bad governance’ in the country.

Briefing State House correspondents yesterday after the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) met with the president at the State, Abuja, Oshiomhole condemned the Sahara Reporters publisher for leading the demonstration after losing the presidential contest.

He said: “Let’s be honest. I have led a series of protests even to this Villa. Whoever wants to protest should articulate his grievances and make specific demands about the solutions that he wants. So what exactly do you know as members of the fourth estate of the realm that Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, a presidential candidate, cleared by INEC to bid for power and asked Nigerians to vote for him want? Now Nigerians have voted, the votes have been counted and he was not a favoured candidate. What does he want now? That Nigerians must make him the president?

“Because we all have to be careful, nobody should talk as if we have another country. We have challenges but somehow, we have all resolved as a people that the way and route to power is the ballot box. Our task as a people is to continue to work to clean up the system so that only Nigerians alone shall determine who governs them at all levels.”