Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore, has joined the ongoing second phase of the nationwide protests against hunger and bad governance tagged #FearlessInOctober.

Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), while leading the protests in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, demanded immediate and unconditional release of all the detained protesters arrested during the #EdnBadGovernance protests in August and #EndSARS protesters detained since 2020.

Sowore also demanded immediate and unconditional release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
He said that protests were a struggle by Nigerians for a new independence, noting that Nigerian leaders had not only failed Nigerians but had deliberately made life miserable for the people.
He said, “They have made life miserable for our people deliberately. They are looters in whatever sector they are. Our own independence starts now; because the independence we got in 1960, they struggled for it. We are struggling for a new independence.

“It is part of continuation of what we started in 2019 with #RevolutionNow, because we believe that it is the only revolution that can save this country.
“Part of what we are asking them is to release everybody that has been detained in Kaduna, in Abuja, in Katsina, in Kano today. The federal government must release them today. If by the end of the day today, they don’t release all the detained #EndBadGovernance protesters and some of #EndSARS people in 2020, we will disclose the next line of action.”

He said, “We are working together for the release. Part of the reason why we are protesting is to ensure everybody that is in detention illegally, who are being charged with false criminal offenses, including treason which carries a death penalty must be released immediately and thus extend to Nnamdi Kanu who we believed is thus persecuted by the Nigerian state because he has expressed the desire of his people to secede from Nigeria.

“They have the right to either stay or leave Nigeria. Our preference is that we will not completely prevent anybody from either staying or being in Nigeria.”
Sowore, who decried the state of the country, described Nigeria’s independence as a clog in the wheel of progress and ‘internal colonialism’.

He said, “We have called on Nigerians to exercise real independence because the Independence that was granted to Nigerians in 1960 has become a burden to the Nigeria citizens and part of the problem in 1960 is that we got flag independence, we did not get real independence, so we are transferred to white colonialists to internal colonialism.

“We have asked Nigerians to commence the series of actions to get real independence and that starts today. We are very clear that this country needs a revolution. Nothing but revolution can liberate Nigerians from the shackles of people.”