The young man has decended
Nura Ilyasu, the man who climbed a telecommunications mast in Abuja on Wednesday to protest the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari, has finally descended, SaharaReporters reports.
He came down from the mast on Thursday.
Ilyasu touched ground at 11:25am voluntarily, after security
operatives acceded to his request that he must address the press upon
his descent.
According to Ilyasu, he climbed the mast to protest the economic
hardship in the country, just as he stated that President Muhammadu
Buhari does not deserve another four years in office.
Security agents had made entreaties to him since Wednesday when he
mounted the mast, but their efforts proved abortive, as he had vowed not
to descend until President Muhammadu Buhari resigns from the office.
However, this morning, they were able to communicate with him via
his mobile telephone, and they appealed to him. He later told them that
he would come down on the condition that he must speak to the press.
He said: “My name is Nura Ilyasu. I am 28 years old. What I did
is within the purview of the law. My human right is to protest
peacefully and I never threatened my life or any other person
“What we are going through in this country is not from God.
Some microscopic-view individuals hijacked all that God endowed Nigeria
with for decent life, and we can’t continue like this. I climbed up for
seven days hunger strike to protest the incompetence and cluelessness,
to protest presidential impunity and general docility displayed by the
masses. We can’t continue like this.
“Other competent candidates are there; even Saraki, Atiku,
Kwankwaso, Tambuwal, Dankwambo and others. At least one of these [men]
will make a good President.
“I don’t believe General Buhari deserves another four-year term
in Nigeria because the pervasive hunger and poverty in Nigeria is
inexplicable. I don’t have mental disorder as being insinuated by some
people.”
When asked how he felt now that he had come down from the mast, Ilyasu said he was full of life and mentally stable.
He said he came down because some lawyers spoke to him while he was on the mast. He was later taken away by security operatives.
Ilyasu climbed a mast with the approval number AB0099 belonging to
Airtel Nigeria, located few metres away from the presidential villa and
Lungi Army Barracks, on Wednesday.