24 hours after: Man who climbed mast descends

LIiyasu (second right) being escorted.

A man who climbed a telecommunications mast in Abuja on Wednesday in protest of the economic hardship in the country among other reasons, descended 24 hours later.

As reported by Espi News on Thursday, Nura Iliyasu, 28, climbed a telecommunications mast with the approval number AB0099 belonging to Airtel Nigeria, located few metres away from the presidential villa and Lungi Army Barracks, on Wednesday vowing to remain there for seven days to draw attention to the economic situation in the country.

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.

Security agents had made entreaties to him since Wednesday when he mounted the mast, but their efforts proved abortive, as he stood his ground.

However on Thursday, 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: “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,” he said.

He told journalists that he came down because some lawyers spoke to him while he was on the mast. He was later taken away by security operatives.