More Drama From #Free@Ciaxon Protest: Sagay Replies @Obajeun…Also Confirms Kemi O. Said She Was There As A Journalist

Lol, so after I posted the tweets
of one of the Ibadan protesters and quoted him to have said, Kemi Olunloyo
denied them and said she was only there to cover the protest, a lot of comments
came in an attacked me, but because I know it must be from ONE source I didn’t
post most of them, lol. Anyway another person who was among the protesters have
come out again to say, it was true that Kemi said she was there as a
journalist. Sagay Agbalaya (@SagaySagay)
one of the protesters also used the medium to say the SSS officers did not ask
everyone one of them for their email/twitter passwords as reported by @Obajeun. Quite interesting, find it after the cut.

Before now, I didn’t believe there was any need to write a
special report on what happened during our visit to SSS office at Aleshinloye,
Ibadan. My thought was that others had tweeted and wrote reports about the
events. I also made a couple of tweets myself.

I however believe there is an urgent need to clarify some
issues based on various reports that we now have in the public domain. I learnt
about the protest on Friday when @Shecrownlita called to inform me about it and
that there should be a march at Ibadan. I had been off twitter for most of the
day so I didn’t know about the build-up for the protest until about 6.00pm
(Nigerian time) when I received her call. She had picked a venue for us –
Mokola Bridge.

I got to Mokola Bridge a few minutes past 10.00am on
Saturday and about 4 people were already on ground. We began moving around the
vicinity of the bridge, carrying our placards, to make some awareness while
others joined us. I noticed a woman, later identified to me as Kemi Olunloyo,
joined us at some point. It was my first time of meeting her as we had never
interacted even on social media before. There was none of the protesters that I
had met before that day except @Gboukzi who later had to leave for an
appointment somewhere.

When we were ready to proceed to the SSS office,
@KemiOlunloyo was still talking to people. From the body language of people
present, it was obvious they were not comfortable with her.

It is true that when we got to the SSS office, @KemiOlunloyo
told the agents she was there as a journalist. She actually introduced herself
as an activist and a journalist but that she acting as a journalist to cover
our protest. At this point, the SSS officers asked who was leading the protest
and we all informed them that there was no leader. We explained to them that we
were not a group, and in fact, most of us had never met one another before. At
this point, our placards were seized from us and @Obajeun’s camera was taken
from him. They insisted that someone should speak for us as they were not
comfortable with the fact that almost everyone was trying to talk at the same
time.

@Obajeun mentioned my name at this point. I believed most of
the other guys agreed with this and I proceeded to tell the officers why we
were there. We were thereafter led into their premises where the State Director
was waiting for us at the gate. The Director asked that @KemiOlunloyo and myself,
as the “leader” of the protest should come into his office upstairs. I dropped
my bag, my galaxy note and my two phones with @Adekunlemao.

As we moved behind the Director, he asked that the other
protesters should also be brought in and they should be placed in a waiting
room. An instruction was given that their mobile devices be submitted before
coming in.

The Director received us at a room which looked like a
conference room. He appeared to be disturbed as to why we would be protesting
the release of someone we didn’t even know. This was after he had quizzed us
about the group we were working for. We made it clear that we didn’t even know
one another and that we were only concerned about the freedom of @Ciaxon.
Before then, we read on twitter that he had been released but we were waiting
for confirmation. The Director left us at some point only to return to inform
us that he had confirmed that Isiaka Yussuf had been released. The team asking
us questions kept asking the same questions over and over again until when they
decided we could leave.

Before leaving, myself and @KemiOlunloyo were asked to write
down our email addresses, phone numbers and twitter handles. I included my blog
address – www.sagaySagay.com. I remember joking with someone that I was happy I
don’t keep n*des in my mail.

When we came down, I went into the waiting room to call on
the other protesters that it was time for us to leave. Everyone went to the
gate to retrieve their phones. My phones were apparently submitted by
@Adekunlemao as I retrieved the devices myself. @Obajeun pointed out that he
was yet to get his camera and same was produced. He however told the officers
that his sun shade was broken while the camera was seized from his neck.

 When we all got out
and away from the vicinity of the SSS, we had a little chat and everyone
embraced as comrades after we took some photographs.

I was however shocked when I read a report by @Obajeun as
published on HERE.  I’ll respond to the
allegations contained there-in as follows:

THE LIES:

1. Nobody asked for any of my passwords.

It is not true that they asked for everybody’s passwords.
Nobody asked for mine. In fact when @Shecrownlita & @Rosanwo asked me about
the password issue this morning, I was shocked because it was the first time it
came to my attention.

@Obajeun wrote:

“We were called one after the other to open up our phones,
write down our emails and passwords including our twitter handles and
passwords.”

I couldn’t immediately refute the allegation because I
didn’t know what happened to the protesters in the waiting room. I can’t
remember anyone mention that his password was taken. However, I still assumed
they could have asked them while I was not there.

I contacted a few folks who I now follow on twitter to
confirm if the SSS officials demanded for their passwords.

@fayupoumping, @OlaMaskot and @Asccheim  all told me via DM that nobody asked for
their passwords. I also asked @azeez_muhammed who did not even respond but went
on his TL to write that nobody asked for his passwords.

While I cannot categorically say if indeed anyone was asked
his password since I have not been able to reach everyone, it is malicious to
say that they asked for everyone’s password.

I don’t know what transpired while I was at the Director’s
office, but I must put it on records that nobody told me they asked for his
password after we left the SSS office.

2. I didn’t go into the Director’s office as “One Sagay
Agbalaya” as @Obajeun reported in his article, I went as the representative of
others with their consent. In fact, @Obajeun was the first person to say I
should speak on behalf of others when it was apparent that @KemiOlunloyo was
there as a “journalist”.

3. Kemi Olunloyo being the reason we were released.

It can’t be true that we were not arrested and just detained
because Kemi Olunloyo went with us. We were there to make our grievances known
just like other protesters did in other parts of the country and I’m yet to get
any report of where anyone was not allowed to return home.

I wish to use this medium to salute everyone who
participated in the campaign.

Thank you.

One Sagay Agbalaya (…That appears to be my new name.)

Sagay Agbalaya tweets from @SagaySagay