Police storm Abuja pro-Amaechi rally,protesters slump, faint

A team of riot policemen, numbering over 200 on
Tuesday, dispersed over 100 protesters, led by
the Executive Secretary of Anti-Corruption
Network and former member of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye.
They were protesting against what they described
as “impunity in Rivers State and abuse of office by
the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph
Mbu.”

During the protest, tear gas canisters were fired
indiscriminately even at journalists.
Some of the protesters slumped and fainted in the
process.
The battle-ready policemen had earlier condoned
off the Federal Secretariat area, Abuja, where the
protest was billed to hold.
The ACN protesters, in their bid to hold the rally,
decided to march from the organisation’s office to
the secretariat, but met an unyielding police
blockade. The security operatives fired tear gas
canisters at the demonstrators, which resulted in
a stampede, with some sustaining injuries.
While describing the situation in Rivers as
“endemic, systemic and becoming contagious,”
the ACN boss said for Nigeria to be rescued, “we
should stand up without fear or favour and
(without) the fear of the consequences.”
He said, “We must do everything to rescue this
country from the hands of these economic canker
worm. There is intimidation, incessant arrests,
threats and assassination attempts on my life. But
for me, I am resolute because the battle to deliver
this country from economic canker worms,
financial vultures and inept leadership, as I have
repeatedly said, is a battle of no retreat, no
surrender.”
Nigerians, he said, must creep out of their
cocoons and become change agents.
Melaye added, “We need to call a bloodless
revolution that will transform this nation from the
hands of these economic canker worms and
financial scavengers. Nigeria is not only sick but
also suffering from a dreadful continental
abnormality.
“In an unjust society, silence is a crime, this is
the time in the history of Nigeria where silence is
no longer golden. People must come out and
speak because the day you stop eating is the day
you start dying. Where dictatorship becomes
legalised, revolution becomes a right.”