The Citizens United for Peace and Stability has called off the OccupyNASS protest after the convener, Bunmi Awoyemi declared that a ‘resounding success’ was recorded from the 3-day protest.
The tents as well as other kits set up for the duration of the protest, would be brought down while the protesters would leave the main gate of the National Assembly after a 3-day sit-in.
When the protests began, some of the demands of CUPS was for the immediate resignation of the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki, a return of the 108 SUVs bought by the Senate for lawmakers, the immediate passage of the petroleum industry bill and a reversal of all constituency projects proposed in the budget.
Despite the fact that the set goals were not achieved, the convener, Bunmi Awoyemi still found a line of victory in the protest.
He told Premium Times that: “This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that Nigerians from all walks of life were able to galvanise each other to come to Abuja to shut down the National Assembly.”
“We succeeded in sending a very strong message that Nigerians will no longer be taken for a ride.”
Speaking further, Awoyemi denied reports that the protest was sponsored against Saraki, who is under pressure to relinquish his position as a result of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
However, at the launch of the protest, the prevailing demand of the group was for the resignation of the Senate President.
Awoyemi explained that: “As we have said since the beginning of this protest, it’s not about Saraki. The aim of this protest is not to get Bukola Saraki to resign because he’s a symptom of the entire rot in the legislature. The aim of this project is to achieve fundamental reforms.”
Contrary to reports that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state are the moneybags behind the protest, Awoyemi said the funds for the financing of the protest came from well meaning Nigerians who were interested in the cause of the group.
“From day one, when Nigerians said they’re interested in occupying the National Assembly, contributions started coming in. Nigerians started asking for the account of the movement.”
“Five thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand and even one million. A Nigerian, sitting amongst you today, donated ₦1 million to this protest. From U.S., from U.K., people were contributing to this movement. We were averaging ₦400,000 every day.”
Despite getting the bulk of its funding from the public, CUPS rejected a suggestion to open its financial activities to public scrutiny.
Awoyemi described suggestions to publish details of its accounts for all Nigerians to see as ‘insulting’ to the group.
In a related happenstance, the founder of CUPS, Idris Ahmed popularly known as ‘Idi Burgu’ is reportedly unable to return to the shores of the country as he has a pending charge of fraudulent activities at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
CUPS, before the protest also claimed to be in partnership with BudgIT, a Lagos based Civil Society Group for credibility and fundraising.
BudgIT is however, yet to openly associate with the group and confirm the purported partnership.
On Wednesday, April 20, the Senate during a closed session, suspended the Code of Conduct Bureau Amendment Bill.
CUPS has now hinged its success on this decision by the Senate, as Awoyemi believes the Tuesday, April 26 protest led to the suspension of the Bill.
“When the movement of OccupyNass started, there were issues that were related to the amendment of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunal Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, it was when this movement took off that they took those controversial bills down.”
“We succeeded in sending a very strong message that Nigerians will no longer be taken for a ride. The senators also held a private meeting in which they said there’s too much negative publicity about the National Assembly because of our protest. They also cancelled the summon of the CCT chairman.”
