Buhari’s aide: #EndSARS was a failed amateur coup d’état

Personal Assistant to the President on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, has described the 2020 #EndSARS protests as a failed amateur coup d’état.

She lamented that a hitherto genuine movement was hijacked by vested interest to remove the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The presidential aide made her position known on Wednesday in a piece titled “#OccupyNigeria was a protest; #EndSARS was a failed amateur coup d’état.”

Her words: “#EndSARS was a failed coup d’état. #EndSARS represents the killing of police officers, looting of palliative warehouses and destruction of public utilities.

“We will never forget the harsh tag that killed 27 police officers, roasted and ate of one of them in a failed coup attempt. Their hands are stained with blood.”

Onochie stated that most Nigerians supported #EndPoliceBrutality until the movement was hijacked by vested interests.

According to her, “#EndPoliceBrutality was what most Nigerians Wanted. Fact! But cash would not be needed to run this as almost every Nigerian would have been involved and for free.

“So the hustlers preferred to target an arm of the Police their sponsors did not like.

“Even at that, within 24 hours, all their demands were accepted by our magnanimous youth-friendly President, Muhammadu Buhari.

“They extended the goalposts by making more demands. Their demands were still, agreed to.

“But that was not what they wanted. They wanted blood. They wanted revenge. They wanted a change of government.

“Some of them ran for Presidency, meeting President Buhari at the polls. He beat them silly, thoroughly disgracing them.

“A victorious campaign that would have given them honour, did the opposite. They went on a rampage, a blood orgy of some sort, killing 27 Police Officers. They recorded the roasting and eating of one of the Police officers.

“They looted government warehouses where food for the biting pandemic palliatives were stored.

“They destroyed government and private businesses, sending families into bankruptcy and created hardships for ordinary Nigerians who use the Lagos Transport Services, daily.

“They desecrated the Nigerian Flag, not the SARS emblem. The Nigerian flag! So the failed coup was not really about SARS but about change of government of Nigeria through the back door.

“If they were sincere, if they were honest in their intentions, they should have gone home as we did with #OccupyNigeria which was for a policy change.”

The presidential aide shared her experience on how the opposition plotted the #OccupyNigeria protest in 2011.

“Late 2011, we began to plan to execute a protest, a peaceful protest for January 2012. All our meetings, were online. Every part of Nigeria was involved. The youth and the elderly, were all involved. We were self-sponsored, meaning each of us paid his or her own bills associated with the protest.

“In fact, when I arrived from the UK, Japheth J Omojuwa, Seun Okinbaloye, Dada Dolusegun Olusegun, Olumide Gbadebo, Chinedu Ekeke, etc., were shocked to see that I was way ahead of them in age, an old woman!

“Succinctly put, although we were not done yet with the protest, we knew when the protest was over. WE ALL WENT HOME, pocketing the victory we achieved,” she said.