Angry youths shouting “Bama yi! Bama yi! Bama yi (we don’t want, we don’t want, we don’t want) attempted to gain entrance into the house of former President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, his hometown in Katsina State.
The youths, who came in their numbers, joined the #EndBadGovernance nationwide demonstration yesterday, Thursday, August 1, to protest against economic hardship in the country.
The protest turned violent in some states, leading to deaths and forcing at least three governors to declare curfew.
The Daura protesters who attempted to break into the residence of the former president said they were fed up with the economic situation in the country.
According to reports, they set up a bonfire in front of the former President’s house and started chanting loudly, “Bama yi! Bama yi! Bama yi, meaning we don’t want to.
It took the intervention of an unidentified person who came out of Buhari’s residence to address the angry youths.
Eyewitnesses said the person asked the youths to select one person to speak, while he would record it on video and show it to Buhari.
Thereafter, the angry youths reportedly headed for the palace of the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Farouk Umar Farouk.
At the Emir’s palace, one of them was reportedly shot on the leg by security operatives who were trying to disperse them but the protesters refused to back down.
Said a Daura resident who wouldn’t want his name on record: “I was at my place of work organising a speech and prize event for our students when the protest began. I was briefed about what happened. I learnt that the protesters took to the residences of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Emir of Daura and Magajin Garin Daura.
“While returning home from my place of work, I moved through the residence of Alhaji Musa Uba, the Magajin Gari, a senior traditional title holder in the Emirate, and can confirm that some minor damages had been done there. He was reportedly against the protest and that could be the reason the protesters attacked his house. They threw stones at the house but the situation was contained by security operatives. The palace of the Emir is being guarded by the army and police. As we speak, Daura is calm.”
SIMILARLY, an attempt was made by protesting youths to burn down the house of the Minister for State (Defence) and a Tinubu ally, Bello Matawalle, in Guzau, Zamfara State yesterday, according to a group, Zamfara Peace Initiatives Forum (ZAPIF), which condemned the incident.
In a statement by its Secretary, Alhaji Ahmed Bako (Danmadamin Kucheri), the ZAPIF alleged that the attempt was initiated by political enemies of President Bola Tinubu under the guise of the ongoing nationwide protests, lamenting that children between 15 and 17 years of age from Lalan, Gada Biyu, Tudun Wada, Birnin Ruwa, Hayin Maigemu and Unguwar Dallatu, were mobilised by suspected agents of the State Government to make such an attempt on Matawalle’s property.
“President Tinubu’s political allies including Matawalle, Sen Abdul’aziz Yari, Sen Sahabi Yau, Hon Rikiji among others, were being targeted and attacked by hired miscreants just to get at him,” ZAPIF claimed, adding that “such open attacks on these highly respected elders by the sponsors of the protest in Gusau, Talata Mafara and Kaura Namoda are doing so to get political sympathy from the people and they must be stopped.
“It is unfortunate that the same state government that failed to account for billions of naira released by the federal government through allocations, COVID-19 intervention for sustainable development and fight against poverty, hunger, and insecurity could be blaming President Tinubu’s administration for its failure.”
