Wale Akinselure
Protest over naira scarcity and fuel scarcity continued in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Monday, 6th February 2023 with some youths staging protests in front of the main gate of the University of Ibadan.
Recall that youths had last Friday and Saturday embarked on a protest in areas like Agodi Gate, Iwo Road, State Secretariat, and Federal Secretariat over the same naira notes scarcity, with attendant damage to property and loss of lives.
Meanwhile, bearing in mind the magnitude of last week’s protests in Ibadan, security presence and security patrols was heavy with men of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Oyo State Security Network Agency codenamed Amotekun stationed at virtually all major points, flash points of the state capital.
In Monday’s protest, the youths were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions and voiced their lamentation at the hardship faced as a result of the naira and fuel scarcity.
One of the protesters, Olalekan Adisa said the protest was informed by the fact that the new naira policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) imposed a life of misery on the common people especially.
Led by the chairman of Oyo State chapter of #RevolutionNow, Mr Solomon Emiola, the protesters bemoaned the high charges to receive money at Point of Sales (POS) points and difficulty withdrawing money from bank accounts.
The protesters, who had earlier obstructed traffic flow on the Ojoo-UI-Sango road, were parked on one side of the road by combined teams of men of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
After chanting Aluta songs by the side of the road and under the watchful eyes of security personnel in large numbers, Emiola and some of the protesters at about 10.55am marched away from the University of Ibadan main gate towards the Sango area with a truck of security personnel following them behind.
