The soldiers that President Goodluck Jonathan deployed to quell the pro-fuel subsidy riots in Lagos remained in the state on Tuesday despite pleas by eminent Nigerians asking the President to rescind the deployment. On Monday, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola (SAN); and some other eminent Nigerians had criticised the deployment and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the soldiers from the streets of Lagos. The critics had argued that the largely non-violent protests that Lagos witnessed during the fuel subsidy crisis did not warrant the deployment of troops. But indications that the President had ignored the eminent Nigerians emerged on Tuesday as our correspondents who moved round the metropolis reported that the soldiers were still stationed around Lagos. Soldiers were sighted at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, which served as the epicentre of last week’s protests, and other areas of the city, including Obanikoro, Surulere, Tafawa Balewa Square, Maryland and Fadeyi. According to reports, the soldiers did not frisk motorists and passers-by or search vehicles as they did on Monday, but they were all heavily armed. At Falomo in Ikoyi, the venue of very successful protest rallies last week, soldiers and Air Force policemen were seen under the Falomo Bridge. The stern military men did not allow commercial drivers to pick passengers under the bridge. The Convener, Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the group was going to sue the Federal Government for the violent violation of their rights to peaceful protest. Bakare said the government violated their rights through the deployment of troops and armoured vehicles to the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota. Bakare said, “The violation of our rights to peaceful protests by the Federal Government through the deployment of troops and tanks to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park on Monday, January 16, is totally uncalled for. “Before we rallied at the park, we sought the necessary permission from the Lagos State Government and we wrote to notify the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and asked him to provide protection. “The policemen deployed to the park were mostly idle throughout the five days we spent at the Park, as there was no breakdown of law and order. Governor Babatunde Fashola in rejecting the crude assault on our right to protest acknowledged our peaceful conduct throughout our activities. “And we agree with him totally that if we had conducted ourselves otherwise, the police were the right body to deal with that and not soldiers who occupied the venue and subjected our people to harassment, corporal punishment and intimidation. It is unfortunate that this brutal dictatorship is taking place in a civilian dispensation. We shall definitely enforce our rights in courts to teach the regime the basic principles of civilised conduct in a democratic setting.” Bakare also said the CNG would hold a victory rally on Saturday as a mark of appreciation of the resilience of Nigerians during the five-day protest against fuel subsidy removal. Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) , who spoke with one of our correspondents on the telephone on Monday described the development as illegal and constituted an abuse of power. According to Sagay, soldiers can only be deployed in a place when there is insurrection against a sitting government, a situation he said was not present in Lagos while the protests lasted. He said, “Obviously, this is illegal and a gross abuse of power. People gathered at the various protest centres in Lagos and other parts of the country singing and dancing. There was no any form of insurrection. It is only when there is an insurrection that soldiers can be deployed in streets. That is, when some persons take up arms against a sitting government. There was no such thing in this situation.” Tunji Braithwaite at a press conference on behalf of Coalition of Civil Society Groups also demanded the immediate withdrawal of the troops. He said, “We want the immediate withdrawal of the soldiers from the state. We are not in the military era and Nigerians are not happy with this occupation. “The 1999 Constitution has been giving immunity to public officers with questionable records and for this reason they commit all manners of atrocities without being brought to book. It is high time immunity was withdrawn to bring people to account.” The Congress for Progressive Change said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, that the military siege was unacceptable. Fashakin said, “The current military siege on the streets of Lagos, especially those leading to Ojota, the venue of the massive congregation of Nigerians against the fuel increase, is totally unacceptable. “The hubris of the FG’s penchant for calling out soldiers (like Boys’ Scout) on Nigerian streets for the flimsiest of reasons can only show the desperation of the government in refusing to acknowledge its squandering of the people’s goodwill. The resort to fascist schemes can only exacerbate the disillusionment of the Nigerian people to the viciousness of the government in the management of the affairs of state. Mohammed, son of the late legal icon, Gani Fawehinmi, in a statement on Tuesday said the deployment of soldiers in the state smacked of dictatorial tendencies. “The deployment of soldiers by President Goodluck Jonathan to all rallying points of protests confirms his military dictatorial tendencies to perpetuate himself in power. He should be reminded that we are in an era of democracy and the over N900bn budgeted for defence would not do the trick either,” Mohammed said. Also, leaders of Christian and Muslim bodies in Lagos State flayed the Federal Government over the militarisation of the state. The leaders at a press conference on Tuesday said they found the development unacceptable because the state had always been an epitome of religious and ethnic harmony in the country. Some of the leaders included Sheikh Afeez Abu, Sheikh Abdul Mojeed, Sheikh Sikirullahi Shaffy, Apostle Jeremiah Akinwusi, Archdeacon Yinka Omolu, Dr. Saheed Timehin and Rev. Bernard Okodua who is the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria and co-chairman Nigeria Inter-Religious Council. Okodua who spoke on behalf of the leaders said, ‘‘As a state that has harboured over 20 million people of diverse backgrounds without any case of breakdown of law and order, even in the face of violence in other parts of the country, we are at a loss to what could have warranted such huge presence of military men who have taken over the duties of the police as if there is a coup d’état in the country.’’
