The police are restricting movement in and out of music legend Fela Kuti‘s New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja in order to prevent a mass meeting of #EndSARS supporters organized by Fela’s son and Afrobeat musician Seun Kuti. Kuti revealed this on his social media after the Nigeria Police Force, Alausa Division sent to the New Afrika Shrine; dated November 16, 2020.
Seun Kuti had previously sent out flyers to announce a mass meeting tagged; #EndSARS Movement: Lessons and Tasks. The meeting was to take place at the Shrine. To this, the police responded with a threatening letter; which is not only a violation of Nigerians’ civil right to peaceful gathering, but also riddled with grammatical errors.
According to Kuti, in addition to that, they also called his older sister, Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti, and threatened her too.
Kuti posted images of the letter to his social media along with a caption; which reads in part: “I respect my [family’s] decision not to hold the event as is… But I will still go ahead with all the other organizations to launch THE MOVEMENT OF THE PEOPLE tomorrow and start our political resistance to the tyranny of this oppressive regime.”
Read the letter below:
Undoubtedly, a country that is so afraid of the gathering of people does not have the citizens’ best interests at heart. Apparently, their only concern is with silencing any opposition to the deep-rooted corruption that makes it rotten at its core.
Upon the threat of the police, Seun Kuti has gone ahead to hold a meeting at a location other than the Afrika Shrine. At the meeting, which is currently being streamed live on Instagram, Seun Kuti has insisted that no laws are being broken. However, he has received many threatening phone calls in the past day.
But the government’s aggressive approach to the #EndSARS movement has surpassed what anyone expected and it is quite unfortunate.