By Precious Mark
The 2027 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, led demonstrators through the streets of Abuja on Wednesday, demanding the immediate resignation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over soaring economic hardship, inflation, and security challenges.
The protest, organized under the banner of the Take-It-Back Movement and the RevolutionNOW campaign, saw demonstrators march toward central administrative zones carrying placards demanding an end to bad governance and urgent economic relief.
The march encountered heavy security roadblocks and a simultaneous counter-demonstration by pro-government groups carrying banners in support of the administration, leading to a direct standoff at the barricades.
In a statement released following the demonstration, Sowore insisted that public agitation against government policies would continue to grow despite security obstacles.
“At the barricade, where the security forces erected their usual roadblocks to prevent us from reaching the President, who remains hidden away in his Aso Rock bunker, we addressed the people and reaffirmed our resolve.”
“At the appointed hour, no amount of barricades can stop a determined movement. The revolutionary movement will continue to move and grow until those responsible for Nigeria’s suffering are made to answer for their crimes,” he said.
Sowore also accused security agencies of organizing counter-demonstrators to intimidate the marchers, asserting that several counter-protesters eventually joined the main movement.
“The lawless Department of State Services, led by its cowardly and most insecure Director-General, Tosin Ajayi, was so frightened by today’s RevolutionNOW protest that he hired fake pro-Tinubu protesters to confront our team.”
“They were no match for the people’s determination, and some eventually joined our procession. Their scripted assignment was to demand that the same lawless Department of State Services arrest me for saying, ‘Tinubu Must Go’,” he added.
He argued that the presence of counter-groups demonstrated official concern over widespread public dissatisfaction.
“When a government resorts to manufacturing counter-protests instead of addressing the people’s grievances, it only exposes its fear of the growing demand for revolutionary change,” Sowore concluded.