A senior All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart and close ally of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, has claimed that the #EndSARS protests of August 2020 were orchestrated to end Tinubu’s political career.
Akande made this assertion in an interview with media personality Edmund Obilo, which was uploaded on YouTube. According to him, the protest, which started as a movement against police brutality, was allegedly hijacked by a group known as the Obidients to undermine Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
EndSARS: A Protest Against Police Brutality
The #EndSARS movement initially emerged as a mass demonstration against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit widely accused of extrajudicial killings, unlawful arrests, and extortion of innocent citizens. The protest successfully led to the disbandment of SARS but was met with a violent crackdown, resulting in the deaths of several protesters.
Obidients Behind #EndSARS?
Speaking on the challenges Tinubu faced before emerging as Nigeria’s president, Akande alleged that the protest was part of a broader scheme hatched in the United States to derail Tinubu’s political career.
“The Obidients, not Peter Obi, were behind the #EndSARS protests. It was manufactured from America and brought in just to stop him,” Akande claimed.
He further alleged that the movement was initially intended to evolve into a political party but failed to materialize.
“It later became a movement to form a party, but they couldn’t, and they also found it difficult to join any existing party,” he added.
Obidients and Tinubu’s Defeat in Lagos
During the 2023 presidential election, the Obidient movement played a significant role in Peter Obi’s historic victory over Tinubu in Lagos, a state long considered the stronghold of the APC leader.
Akande’s claims have since sparked reactions from political observers and supporters of the Obidient movement, who insist that the #EndSARS protests were a spontaneous uprising against police brutality rather than a politically motivated scheme.