In this interview with MyNigeria, Dr ‘Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Segalink, founder and president of the Social Intervention Advocacy Foundation (SIAF), agreed with former governor of Osun State Pa Bisi Akande's claim that the #EndSARS protest of October 2020 was organized by the Obidient Movement to destroy President Bola Tinubu's presidential ambition.

Awosanya also dissociated the EndSARS protest from the EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy he created to clean the rot in the Nigeria Police Force.

He said, "When you look at the Obidient Movement, you remember that they didn't become a movement until after the EndSARS protest of 2020. You would also recall that there wouldn't have been an #EndSARS protest with the name in the first instance without the success of the EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy I created. That advocacy was not created for any political reasons. For those who have been monitoring carefully and consciously the activities around 2017 when EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy was launched, you will realize that the IPOB group was proscribed in September 2017 by the Buhari administration.

The advocacy started officially in October, even though we had been doing interventions since April 2017. In October 2017, we declared a national emergency on the state of the culture of impunity in the police system when we realized the torrential cases against the Nigeria Police. So, the proscribed group and other political agitations needed a common ground platform to hide their operations, and we noticed the influx and support we got."

He said that in the early days of his advocacy, its decisions were based on data, adding that it was not politically motivated, neither did it insult the Buhari administration.

"We never demonised Buhari or any administration during that period. We never fought anybody neither did we hold a protest and I will explain why. IPOB and other agitations need anything that unites Nigerians; they need such a platform to ride upon. So, they wanted to hide their operations under EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy. When we noticed their influx, we were aware of their engagement. If you noticed, when you do something against #EndSARS, some people will come and attack you. They were the ones doing all those things.

When we noticed that, I decided to tell Deji Adeyanju and the rest of them who were eager to use this as a protest voice for whatever it is they do. I immediately put out a bulletin stating why my advocacy was not interested in protests and burning tyres. I stated that it would give a chance for those seeking to repurpose it for their agenda. I'm putting all these things to you now so you will understand the context of Pa Bisi Akande's statement," he said.

Awosanya stated that his advocacy was able to end the activities of the corrupt Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and got the President to sign into law the Police Trust Fund 2019 and the Police Act 2020 by September 2020.

"This all happened before the October 2020 protest. Not everyone was happy that we had met our goal and that we had started the journey to the holistic internal security reforms. They wanted the agitation to continue so they could do whatever they wanted to do and they used every excuse to stir up discontent against the police until the Delta incident happened, where they said the police killed some people in Ughelli and because of that they started protesting.

Meanwhile, those people were not killed. There was an accident but they were alive. But you know that on social media, half a story is a full story. That was how the protest started and spread across Nigeria. Sowore and Adeyanju started protesting in Abuja, and then in Lagos, several groups also protested.

You know that there are some perpetual protesters. Once they hear about a coming protest, they start creating banners. That's what they do to feed themselves because they use footage from protests to get grants from foreign countries. The only agitation in Nigeria today that has never received a dime from any foreign agency is the EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy. I funded myself, footing the bills of my flights right from 2015 when I fought for the Nigerian Immigration 2,000 who were chased away by supporters of Buhari. So, if you see the trajectory of success, you will see the need for why they wanted people like me to support their agenda. They needed that force to give their terrorism legitimacy.

Now that they have been declared terrorists, they want to convert themselves into a different thing, wear a veil and begin to use it as a semblance of performative activism that will give them legitimacy enough to say it's all about politics. Meanwhile, these are terrorists in disguise, I noticed they were insurrectionists and I called them out. Unfortunately, ignorant souls fought me because they were brainwashed to believe something was coming to them after they had been called to the table," Awosanya said.

He said the EndSARS protest began organically after the Ughelli incident, and he supported it for the first three days until he noticed something strange about it.

He said, "I started seeing the hands of Esau, in other words, the same-sex agitations by feminist groups who got money from Twitter in Bitcoins which they used to fund the terrorists, thugs and all the people who committed all the atrocities within that space. While they were claiming to be peaceful protesters, shops were being robbed, people were being raped, police officers were being killed, houses were being burnt, supermarkets were being burgled and so many other things.

Policemen could not wear their uniform at the time, yet they said they were peaceful protesters, forgetting the ripple effect of their actions across Lagos and other states. The IPOB sleeper cells and other insurrectionists all got activated with Bitcoin funds from the feminist movement and the rest they say is history. Also, remember that Nnamdi Kanu had a broadcast he made during that period in which ordered his IPOB members to burn everything and attack Tinubu. So, anyone who denies and tells you that the failed agitators, defamers and cyber bullies who now dominate and control the Obidient camp are not parties to the targeted attacks during the 2020 protests is only pulling the wool over your eyes.

The truth is out there. The instruction from Nnamdi Kanu was clear, and the mission is still veiled only by a pretentious political campaign from the misfit who failed woefully as a governor. So, IPOB which has been declared as a terrorist organization has put on a mask of a campaign group under Obi's movement. Obi knows who they are but he needs their noise and belligerence to force himself into power, and that is what Pa Bisi Akande is referring to. When he said EndSARS, it was for easy comprehension, He didn't mean the wholly successful advocacy, which explains why no police declared me wanted."

Segalink blamed government officials, saying they failed in their duties and resorted to appeasing the mob who got energized by their pleas.

He said, "If they had been transparent and accountable in their doings, they would not be found in the darkness of night begging entertainers on camera after the protest had broken out. That was one of the things that gave these people energy. There are videos and records of Zoom calls between Emefiele and the likes of Falz, Banky Wellington, Debola, Aisha Yesufu and so many of them meeting leaders of this country in the dead of night on Zoom calls during that period.

Why should that happen if the state itself is serious? So, Pa Bsi Akande has a point that genuinely, there was an agitation targeted to destroy Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which was connected to the protest of 2020, which is tagged EndSARS but has nothing to do with the patriotic position and objective stance of the EndSARS ReformPoliceNG Advocacy. The majority of the beneficiaries of the advocacy were people from the Southeast who are now my enemies because I refused to bow down to their god and turn my advocacy into a political movement and use it to destroy certain figures."