#EndSARS: “You’re the cause of our problems,” Protesters says as they burnt Azikiwe’s statue in Anambra state

The statue of the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe at the Denis Memorial Grammar School Roundabout, Awka Road, Onitsha, was allegedly burned by ENDSARS protesters in Anambra State.

From 1963 to 1966, Azikiwe served as Nigeria’s first President.

“According to The Punch, the protesting youths were heard shouting while smashing the statue:” You put us in this mess by championing one of Nigeria,” “You are the cause of our trouble.

While narrating the incident, Victor Ononye, a relative of Azikiwe, identified the destruction of the late statesman as heretical and sacrilegious.

The demonstrators, whom he identified as hoodlums, Ononye said, hung a used tyre on the statue and set it on fire.

He said that a few other objects were damaged around the statue, adding that it was a mystery that they were not stopped by police officers who were a few meters away.

He said, “The Right Hon Dr Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, the first President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, must be expressing regrets wherever his spirit is, for attracting independence to Nigeria.

“What happened at the DMGS Roundabout, Onitsha, which I saw with my own eyes evoked tears.

“Miscreants, hoodlums, gutter snippers, loafers, charlatans, nitwits, nincompoops and bastards besieged the statue, hung a used tyre on his neck, poured petrol and set it on fire.

“They decapitated his hand and went away with his title staff. That was the height of ingratitude by the bastards who are ignorant of history.

“They descended on the various items used for decoration of the site and tore them to pieces. They were few in number. Why the police, who were a stone’s throw away to the roundabout, could not intervene was a mystery.

“I saw two vigilante men brandishing rifles and riding on a motorcycle. They stopped and the boys hailed them and they drove off.”