Another October 20? Before Sowore Pushes Citizens To Mayhem…

By Onyema Nwabueze, feminwabuking@gmail.com, Imo State

In October 2020, a viral video had shown Police operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), assaulting and eventually shooting to death a young man in Ughelli, Delta State. The outrage sparked widespread protests, famed as the “#EndSARS” protests, particularly in South of Nigeria, with protesters demanding justice and holistic reforms to Policing in the country. What many did not envisage though was the turn of events despite Government’s obvious disposition to yielding to the demands of the protesters.

For an incident which happened in Delta State, it still beats the imagination on how Abuja and most tragically, Lagos State, became the hotbed of violence and deaths. While Government made frantic efforts to engage those identified as major influencers of the protests and the Police had ordered a nationwide disbandment of SARS all within a week of the protests, the protesters remained adamant, insisting that they were too amorphous to even have leaders and that all demands must be met at once. It didn’t take long before adversarial elements took advantage of the rudderless mob and wreaked havoc on both public and private property while targeting pro-Government protesters who dared to challenge the rampage. Policemen were killed alongside innocent citizens, Police stations were razed while shopping malls and business centres were looted. Lagos suffered the most of these destructions with rioters seemingly incited and gingered on from the Lekki toll gate gathering of the frontline promoters of the protests. And by October 20, 2025, a desperate Lagos State Government faced with increasingly violent riots which became uncontrollable even for the promoters, invited military intervention in what culminated in the infamous Lekki toll gate killings.

Exactly five years on, Sowore seems hell-bent on re-enacting history with an almost inevitable clash with security forces enroute Aso Villa gate. This is where Nigerians need to be wary. Those who incite civil disobedience of the kind that Sowore is notorious for, are rarely ever the victims of its eventualities. It will be telling that not a single protest will hold across the South-East of Nigeria for two reasons – the people have for long, directly borne the wrath of IPOB secessionists fuelled by Kanu’s anarchist rhetorics; and the Governors in the region who could have given political backing to such protests are justifiably pro-Federal Government. The protest also seems another in the many plots to arm-twist Government into releasing Nnamdi Kanu just after the kite of his alleged deteriorating health did not quite fly beyond IPOB sympathisers.

The timing of the protest further betrays the sinisterness of the promoters who appear to be united only in their shared interest to distract and disrupt Government. This reflects in their choice of location for the protest, overlooking every other location across the FCT perfect for legitimate exercise of civic rights to peaceful protest and settling rather for a provocative march to the Presidential Villa which unduly jeopardises the safety of especially gullible citizens. Otherwise, a more practical approach as has been advocated in several quarters would also be to enlist the support of the Governors of South-East along with political and cultural stakeholders from the region, to present a unified case to the Federal Government on the need to negotiate the release of Kanu. This would have ordinarily been a better approach, except where there are ulterior motives as seems the case with Sowore’s protest.

Again, Nigerians must be wary. Civil society organisations must also do more to protect unsuspecting citizens from exploitation by desperate politicians who have infiltrated the civic space and on the verge of desecrating it. Genuine civil rights advocates must be distinguishable from disingenuous politicians. While the case can be made for a politically negotiated release of Nnamdi Kanu, it is not worth the life of citizens. IPOB has wrecked enough havoc in the South-East, the mayhem should not be exported to the nation’s capital or anywhere else.