Police officers pacify members of the #OccupyNASS movement from entering inside the National Assembly Complex in Abuja on Tuesday Two opposing protest groups on Tuesday marched to the National Assembly premises singing, and chanting different demands to the incoming legislators, but the ensuing events of the groups left a telling story in the history of Nigeria's Third arm of government. Early in the Tuesday morning, a motley crowd supporting embattled senate president, Bukola Saraki arrived the premises, seeking an end to the "persecution" of the senate president through inscriptions on placards. Leader of the group, Solomon Adodo, said those calling for Saraki's resignation didn't mean well for the country. "We must stiffly resist an attempt to force Saraki to throw in the towel," he said.

But soon after their arrival, then came another group, with even larger number of protesters under the umbrella of #OccupyNASS, seeking certain actions by the lawmakers, that include the resignation of the senate president over his ongoing trial, quick passage of the 2016 budget, revoking of the procurement of SUVs by the upper chamber and many others. The #OccupyNASS protesters had marched from the Unity Fountain with the back-up of security vehicles and arrived at the main entrance of the National Assembly around 11.am.

Upon sighting different, opposing protesters, the two groups agitated each other and the latter prevailed in chasing the former out of the premises and into the distant Federal Secretariat premises. In no time, a long queue of vehicles belonging to both lawmakers and staff of the National Assembly formed. They raised placards that read: "Legislators stop budget padding", "Return exotic cars", "Saraki must go", "Enough is enough" among others, but the security officers eventually succeeded in pushing them to a corner and out of the entry road. As if that would signal the end of the protests, legislators met a shut gate at the closing hour, with loud music billowing from the sit-tight crowd. At around 6.20pm, canopies, mats, kettles , bags of sachet water, generators and eight mobile toilets could be seen amidst the dancing crowd. They kept themselves busy with the songs of late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Bob Marley, the Hausa APC singer, Ra-Ra-Ra among others.

One of the leaders of the protest, Ibrahim G. Wala said they would be at the National Assembly until the weekend to press home their demands. "We will sleep here and continue with our protest till Thursday and other people are coming from other states to support us in this struggle. This is just the beginning," he said. Addressing newsmen, one of the leaders of the group, Sadiq Jidda said Saraki must resign. "His integrity is in question and he has been indicted," he said.

True to their words, legislators again were diverted to make use of either the SGF gate or the presidency's gate, as the protesters number swelled. And owing to social media buzz of the happenings of the first day, more Nigerians, including the aged, joined in what they described as a "ReclaimNigeria" movement. This continued sit-out forced the FCT police commissioner Wilson Inalegwu to storm the premises on Thursday, the third day of the occupation. He appealed to them to open the National Assembly gates at least for easy access by working staff, other than the legislators.

Ibrahim Wala, who first welcomed the police commissioner, informed the reason for the protests. "Respectfully, sir, there are two things we want the honourable members to know. One of them is to consider us as human beings." As soon as he handed over the microphone to the police commissioner for his comments, then came shouts of "Hajiya must talk," implying that the attentive Hajiya A'isha Yesufu must speak before the commissioner. Even as the commissioner had already started speaking, he had to relinquish the microphones to her, as her speech was greeted with intermittent applause. She spoke for about nine minutes, as she started by saying "For Nigeria to work, Nigerian police has to work for the Nigerian people, not to the president, not to the senate president. And the protection of lives and property is the primary responsibility of government."

"I was disappointed when Senator Ali Ndume came out in the media to say that we can protest, but we can't take him out. No, Senator Ndume, millions of your people are homeless, and you are here collecting SUV. We want equality in this nation. We want them to understand that no Nigerian is more Nigerian than another. They are not honouring us by coming out, no. We are the ones honouring them by being here. I am saying enough is enough."

It was then the turn of the police commissioner, who agreed with their agitation and demands. He commended them for orderliness. However, he said: "If we keep these gates open, even this agitation you have, everybody will see you. But now you have shut everybody out. If the gate is open, it will not reduce or affect your agitation because you are civil and all of you here are very mature. I want you to think about it. I appeal to the leadership of this group to kindly open this gate," he said, but eventually left without convincing the protesters to open the gate.

Saraki supporters returned with placards and banners like, "Saraki will not resign", "Saraki will remain senate president", "Leave Saraki alone", "APC save our party, save National Assembly", amongst others. They said that what the #OccupyNASS group had done within the last four days would be replicated at the Villa Gate next week if President Buhari and the APC leadership fail to take action.

Leader of the group, Mr Ohazuruike Tochukwu, who is a legal practitioner, said they want to draw the attention of Nigerians to the alleged injustice being perpetrated against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, through the judiciary. He said President Muhammadu Buhari administration should within seven days address the biting economic hardship across the country, or they will move to the Presidential Villa and occupy it.