- Safiu Kehinde
Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has on Tuesday joined #OccupyNationalAssembly protesters alongside his son in agitation over the Senate’s removal of the electronic transmission of results from the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Amaechi arrived at the National Assembly complex on Tuesday morning where the protesters had assembled in continuation of their demonstration.
Addressing newsmen at the protest ground, the former Rivers state governor harped on the need for more Nigerians to join the protest as he announced this presence of his first son.
“I have always told them that when there is a protest, all of us should come out. There are those who say that we the politicians want protests and our children are overseas.
“Here is my first son. I brought him to join the protest. He is a medical doctor. We need to mobilise more than this.” Amaechi said.
Unlike their previous demonstrations, the protesters’ movement was restricted today as police operatives were deployed to the National Assembly complex with their operational vehicles forming barricade along the road that leads to the legislative house.
Reacting to the development, Amaechi held that the police presence is expected.
He however reiterated his call for mobilisation of more Nigerians to outnumber the police.
On the need for the passage of the e-transmission of election results, Amaechi claimed that the passage of the provision will ensure safety of lives during the election.
“Whether you like it or not, they will bring policemen. But we must mobilise in such a way that march police for police. When they see the number of people, they will also join us.
“The advantage of e-transmission is that very few people will die on the election field. We are saving the lives of Nigerians.
“The current situation is that in every election, people are dying in their droves, in their large number. And they don’t care that people are dying.” He said.
Amaechi further accused the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), of plot to rig the election while alleging that President Bola Tinubu is unconcerned about the plight of Nigerians.
“If you think they won’t rig, you are wasting time. To stop them from rigging, we must come out in large numbers.
“The only time the President began to react to insecurity was when Americans said they were killing Christians. He doesn’t care about Nigerians.
“We must go back home now before the election and mobilise ourselves in large numbers. If there is 300,000 policemen, bring out 600,000 Nigerians.
“Compare our time when we were youths to the current youths, then we had Buhari; we had Babangida, but we were always on the street. We were shot at and killed. We were on the street protesting and the government listened.
“If you think President Tinubu will listen to you, you are just going to waste your time.
“The only way we won’t waste our time is that we must go and get both farmers and villagers. We must get everybody and make them understand that the only way to save Nigerians from election violence is to allow real-time transmission of results.
“They are afraid to lose power. The stealing is too much.” He added.