Drama As Hired Protesters Fight Over Money

There was mild drama at a botched protest in Abuja when members of a coalition, Civil Society Network on Economic and Social Advancement, engaged in a physical scuffle over the formula for sharing alleged money for the protest.

The group members in a hotel in Wuse 2 were at each other’s throats over how to share money.

However, the group’s leaders and other members declined to comment on what prompted the disagreement.

Just to let you know, the group convenor, Abubakar Yari, threatened to picket the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited headquarters during a press briefing last week over the continued fuel queue.

They also called for one million signatures to a petition urging the presidency to sack NNPC’s Group chief executive officer for alleged inability to manage the spate of fuel scarcity in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, in a related development, another group, Arewa Youth Network for Transparency, has called on security agencies to thoroughly investigate the leaders of the Civil Society Network on Economic and Social Advancement.

In a statement signed by Comrade Musa Abdulkadir, the group stated that the identities of the leaders of the Civil Society Network on Economic and Social Advancement must be unravelled.

They wondered why the leaders of a group calling for the financial integrity of government couldn’t boldly reveal their real names.

According to them, “the faceless civil society groups lack verifiable facts, so they resorted to hiding their identities. Mele Kyari has not rested on his oars in putting Nigeria in the excellent light of the world’s petroleum industry.

“We urge the Nigerian security architecture to investigate these groups. The President Bola Tinubu administration has shown capacity. Hence, as a group, we cannot sit still and watch some disgruntled element create smoke where there is no fire.”