Adegboruwa urges youths to suspend protest

Human rights lawyer, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has advised youths to suspend the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest and embrace dialogue with the government, saying the protests have been hijacked by fifth columnists.

Adegboruwa, had on the eve of the protests on Wednesday, urged the organisers to reduce the 10-day action to one day.

“Though the intention of the organisers was to achieve peaceful and well-coordinated protests, it would seem that fifth columnists and some angry persons infiltrated the ranks of the protesters to derail their laudable mission,” a statement by Adegboruwa on Friday said.

“I appeal to the protesters to withdraw themselves from their various protest grounds and to suspend the protests immediately and indefinitely, to give room for meaningful dialogue and engagement with the government.

“Given that the protests were said to have been hijacked by sponsored agents, it is necessary to avoid further losses and casualties.

“The organisers of the protests and their representatives should embrace dialogue with the government,” he said.

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The lawyer to the #TakeItBackMovement, one of the groups that organised the protests, regretted some deaths and losses recorded during the demonstrations, saying it was not the goal of the protests.

He expressed his “sincere condolences to the employers and families of the security personnel and also to the protesters, praying to God to comfort them and to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses”.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to “directly address the nation and then engage the protesters, through their representatives”.

He said the government should thereafter set up a committee comprising men and women of integrity to meet with the protesters to address the issues that they have raised.

Tension was palpable in parts of Nigeria on Thursday as the much-touted #EndBadGovernance protests finally kicked off in almost all the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

On the first and second day of the protests, policemen were seen dispersing the demonstrators, mostly youths, using tear gas, even as civil society organisations (CSOs) condemned the action of the police.

Some of the protesters are seen marching towards the Eagle Square in Abuja on August 2, 2024.
The protests turned awry when some hoodlums took advantage of the demonstrations and looted public and private assets.

In a bid to curb the looting, violence and other after-effects of the protests, the Kano, Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Nasarawa, Jigawa and other state governments imposed curfews in volatile local government areas (LGAs) in their states.

Some deaths have also been recorded, as claimed by Amnesty International. The Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun said a policeman was murdered, some cops injured, and police stations burnt.

Propagated on social media, the nationwide protests against economic hardship started on Thursday, August 1, 2024, and have been scheduled to stretch till August 10 across all states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital Abuja.

Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windows.

Some of the demands of the protesters include the restoration of petrol subsidies and the forex regime. They also want the government to address food shortages, unemployment and wasteful spending by those in power.

Other demands are immediate reforms of the electoral umpire INEC and anti-graft agency EFCC with renewed vigour in the fight against corrupt politicians.