Michael ‘Lenin’ Adaramoye, a mobiliser of the #EndHunger protests in Abuja, has been reportedly arrested in the early hours of Monday by the State Security Service.
Mr Adaramoye, who serves as the national coordinator of the Youth Rights Campaign, was reported around 2:00 a.m., according to Omoyele Sowore, a politician and an activist.
SSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya did not immediately return comments to confirm or deny the arrest.
Mr Adaramoye had on Sunday excoriated President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast for encouraging police brutality against peaceful protesters and “violence and repressions are just attempts to silence and control us, and the propaganda cannot sway or fool us.”
He implied that the president’s address was belated.
“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 mobilising to take to the streets and after scores of dead protesters and assaulted journalists from the first three days of the protests,” Mr Adaramoye said at a presser on Sunday.
Mr Adaramoye added, “Many had requested that the president should just address the nation when the protest was being mobilised 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.“
Mr Adaramoye, in his statement, urged Nigerians “to come out in large numbers to continue these protests on Monday until our demands are met,” asserting that the government’s “two-pronged approach of violence and propaganda has failed.”
