The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum is backing the ongoing Occupy National Assembly Protests, insisting that the lawmakers must yield to Nigerians’ demands.
Oba Oladipo Olaitan, leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, disclosed this on Tuesday on Arise TV, stressing that a large number of Nigerians lose their lives on account of elections because some people want to snatch ballot boxes.
Olaitan, who is also the leader of the Yoruba pan-socio-political organisation, Afenifere, maintained that if the National Assembly sees the insistence of Nigerians, they’ll have no choice but to surrender.
“If they see that there’s agitation like this, protests and things like that, they’ll let it pass. Then they’ll wait for another one again. These are the political thinkers. There are people in politics who do this for them. When I was active in politics, I was one of them. So, if they lose this one, they’ll look for another one. But Nigerians should insist.
“I’m not going to advocate a boycott because we did it before and it didn’t work. If the government is desperate, if you say you boycott, they’ll still put their figures up. So, I’m not going to advocate boycotts, but I’m going to advocate insistence. There’s nothing wrong with nonviolent protests. At the Occupy National Assembly, there’s nothing wrong with it. They should sit at the National Assembly for as long as it lasts. Let them sit down there. Nigerians should sit down and insist. With that, they may have a rethink.”
While lamenting on the horror people go through during elections, and why the unnecessary waste of lives should be avoided when electronic transmission of election results is implemented, he said, “One thing that is missing, which I’ve not heard people talk about, and which is germane, and which I’ve fought against for many years, is safety of mankind. If you know how many lives are lost during elections just because somebody wants to snatch the box, it’s a lot. For many years, I’ve been talking about the late 1970s and now, we used to worry about that. There’s no time we have elections in this country where people are not killed needlessly. Somebody is trying to snatch the box, somebody is trying to do this, they wait along the way to snatch the box and kill one another. But with this, all that is gone. Imagine the amount of money we spend on putting soldiers, policemen around polling booths, just to secure the place. See how much money we waste on them. With this, all that is gone. So, nothing can be more serious than the safety of human lives.”
- Electoral Reforms: Southern, Middle Belt Leaders Forum Backs Occupy NASS Protests - February 11, 2026
- Nigeria’s GDP Per Capital Surpassed China’s, Malaysia’s When We Rejected IMF — Hashim - February 11, 2026
- PDP Faults Senate’s New Position On Electronic Transmission - February 11, 2026