Arrest of #EndBadGovernance Protest Leader Michael Lenin by DSS

Michael Lenin, a leader of the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests in the Federal Capital Territory, has been taken into custody by agents of the Department of State Services.

According to Punch, Lenin was taken into custody by the DSS on Monday, August 5, at around two in the morning from his home in the FCT's Apo neighborhood. Lenin's home was searched by the DSS, according to Damilare Adenola, Director of Mobilisation for the Take It Back Movement. “Lenin has been arrested by the DSS. He was picked up during a raid on his house around 2am. He was arrested and tortured in the presence of his family. We are demanding his immediate and unconditional release,” he said.

The DSS has not yet responded to this information.

Lenin, the National Coordinator of the Youth Rights Campaign, was among the organizers who expressed dissatisfaction with President Bola Tinubu's Sunday broadcast during a press briefing. He claimed that the President's broadcast showed how disconnected from the realities of the nation he lives in.

“We wish to express our sadness and deep disappointment at the latest broadcast by President Tinubu which is his first address to the nation on the #EndBadGovernance protests, after over three weeks since Nigerians started mobilizing to take to the streets and after scores of dead protesters and assaulted journalists from the first three days of the protests.

Many had requested that the President should just address the nation when the protest was being mobilized and when it started to escalate, but most of us did not know that the President would only justify state violence on protesters and journalists while dismissing the demands of the protesters whenever he decides to speak.

This, plus the failed attempt to co-opt the progressive and radical language of the protests only shows how much President Tinubu is out of touch with the masses.”

Lenin went on to say that Monday would see a major protest and urged the public to turn out in force.

“We, therefore, call on Nigerians to come out in large numbers to continue these protests on Monday until our demands are met. The two-pronged approach of violence and propaganda has failed. The violence and repressions are just attempts to silence and control us, and the propaganda cannot sway or fool us.”