Commercial Activities Ground In Osun, Ondo Ekiti, As Pockets Of Protesters March Through Streets, Security Agents In Show Of Strength

By Ayodele Oni

The nationwide protest over economic hardship confronting Nigerians occasioned by  President Bola Tinubu’s harsh economic hardship kicked off  on Thursday, as planned by the organizers.

In Osun State,  protesters who defied early morning downpour, assembled at the popular Olaiya flyover in Osogbo as early as 8am to begin their procession.

The protesters were armed with placards with different inscriptions such as “revert petrol price to pre-May 2023”, “end bad governance” “palliatives cannot save us”, “cut salaries of political office holders”, among others.

Men of the Department of State Security, Police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, Nigerian Army, among others were sighted giving the protesters needed covers.

In Ondo and Ekiti  states, commercial activities were paralyzed in Akure and Ado Ekiti as people including civil servants remained at home over possible break down of law and order.

No protester gathered along Oba Adesida Road the usual assembly in Akure, while the Fajuyi Park in Ekiti state capital, the take off centre for such event in the past was deserted.

Shops, offices, shopping complexes, supermarkets and banks are under lock as some staff members were seeing hanging around to monitor the situation.

Security operatives such as police officers, men of the NSCDC and Amotekun corps were seeing manning strategic places on major roads in Akure.

In some motor parks visited few buses were seeing still stranded without getting passengers to embark on any of the available trips.

A few taxis and tricycles operating are either empty or conveying between one and two passengers.

At Oja Oba, few market women were seeing with skeletal display of goods

Some traders who spoke under the condition of anonymity said they have been warned not to open shops because there could be breakdown of law and order.

Security personnel also were seen positioned at strategic locations and at identified flash points to maintain law and order during the protest, whole some embarked on patrolling major roads within the state capital as a show of Strenght.

Major organizers of the protest under the group known as Concerned Revolutionary Youths, the organizers of #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria had yesterday pulled out of planned protest in Ondo State.

Briefing newsmen in Akure of the decision to withdraw from the planned protest, the State Secretary of the group in Ondo State, Ogundipe Seyi Olaniyi, said the decision followed the interventions of prominent indigenes of the state.

Ogundipe said the group was neither induced financially or intimidated, but resolved to pull out of the planned protest due to the interventions and security reports that some groups were preparing to hijack the protest to settle ethnic scores.