BREAKING: Court Dismisses Case Seeking To Restrain #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protests

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed an application seeking an order of interim injunction restraining Nigerian protesters under different platforms from continuing with the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests.
Justice Peter Lifu dismissed the motion ex parte, marked FHC/ABS/CS/1149/2024, on Monday, August 12, 2024.

Some Nigerians had filed the motion ex parte (dated August 12, 2024) seeking the enforcement of their fundamental rights against the organisations involved with the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests.

The applicants sued organisations such as Take It Back Movement, Concerned Nigerians, Nigerians Against Hunger, Initiative For Change, Human Rights Co-advocacy Initiative, Nigerian Against Corruption Initiative, Citizens For Change Advocacy Initiative, and Timely Intervention (1st to 8th respondents).

Others sued were Active Citizens Group, Students For Change, We Coalition, Total Intervention, Refurbished Nigeria, Tomorrow Today, Our Future In Our Hands Initiative, Youths Against Tyranny, Save Nigeria Movement, Omoyele Sowore, and Social Democratic Party (SDP) (9th to 19th respondents).

The rest are the Attorney General Of The Federation and security agencies.
The applicants’ lawyer, Tsembelee Sorkaa, stated in his process that the right to life, personal liberty, private and family life, movement, property, and economic development of his clients is likely to be breached by the ongoing protest in Nigeria organized by the 1st to 19th respondents who are using the hashtag #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria.

But the judge held that it was not good for the lawyer to rush  his notice ex parte especially without providing the required affidavit to support his requests for an interim injunction and substituted service.

This online medium on Saturday reported that the Take It Back movement — one of the organisers of the just concluded 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests against hardship vowed to return to the streets with a 10-million-person march if President Bola Tinubu fails to address their demands.

For the past 10 days, protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja and other major Nigerian cities, demanding the reinstatement of fuel subsidies and reduced electricity tariffs, among other grievances.

They have expressed frustration with President Tinubu’s apparent disregard for their concerns, despite their persistent demonstrations.

Abiodun Sanusi, an activist, said the movement would pause protests temporarily, but vowed to return with a bigger and more determined crowd if demands are not met.
He had said, “Earlier on, we declared 10 days of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now clear that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians.

“Today is the final day of the 10 days of rage, but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we will come back until he accedes to our demands.”

“We will return to the streets, and this time, we will be more than this. We will be declaring a 10-million-person march across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” Sanusi added.

Thousands of protesters flooded the major streets of Yola on Saturday, passionately calling for President Bola Tinubu’s swift intervention to address the socio-economic crisis gripping the nation.