A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, says the Bola Tinubu’s administration is desperate to disrupt the planned #EndBadGovernance protests with thugs and hoodlums.
Mr Adegboruwa said this on his Facebook page on July 31, noting that efforts were ongoing in many parts of Lagos State to deploy thugs to intimidate protesters.
“What we have done in the past few days is to facilitate dialogue with the law enforcement and security agencies. The insistence by the Inspector-General of Police of ‘credible intelligence’ with plans for violence is a confirmation of the desperation of government to abort the protests by sponsoring hooligans and thugs to disrupt the protests. This is currently ongoing in many parts of Lagos State,” he said.
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Nigerians are taking to the streets today to protest hunger and starvation resulting from Mr Tinubu’s petrol subsidy removal and foreign exchange market liberalisation. Prices of food products from rice to beans have jumped by more than 100 percent in 12 months as food inflation reached 40.87 percent in June 2024 from 25.3 percent in June 2023.
Poverty has escalated in Nigeria, with anger and hopelessness enveloping Africa’s most populous nation.
Adegboruwa said it would be critical for protesters to reduce the number of days for the rallies to just one day or three days at most in order to have a dialogue with the Federal Government.
“Also, let the days of the protests be reduced to one day or in the maximum three days and thereafter be suspended. Let your demands be made known to the government and then give time to address them,” he noted.
The senior lawyer asked President Tinubu to reverse the petrol subsidy removal and naira devaluation to reduce the level of hardship in the nation.
“I will first of all appeal to President Tinubu and his team rise up to this occasion and stop chasing shadows. The twin policies of oil subsidy removal and currency devaluation have worked to cripple the economy and throw Nigeria into its worst economic crisis. They should be reversed immediately,” he said.
He stressed the need for President Tinubu’s government to urgently end wastage by government functionaries, arising from their lavish and luxurious lifestyles.
“How can the President buy a new jet, the Vice-President renovate his house with N21B and the people are expected to suffer? How do you widen your wealth and luxuries and preach to the people to tighten their belts?” he asked.
He urged security agencies to protect protesters and avoid firing bullets from today on demonstrators.
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“The law recognizes the right to peaceful protests, while mandating the police to offer protection to unarmed civilians during their protests. Let no single bullet be fired tomorrow, let there be no arbitrary and unlawful arrest of citizens and let there be no deployment of the military to tackle civilian engagements.
“The protesters are our children and our own citizens. They certainly do not deserve bullets and crackdowns. President Tinubu must end all forms of bad governance, of dolling out billions in religious pilgrimages while handing out pittance to students as loans?” he further said.
He also appealed to protesters to be peaceful during the demonstration.
“My final appeal is to the protesters. Even our forefathers in their graveyards have heard your voices loud and clear. The way and manner in which government has been running helter-skelter since the announcement of the protests show the moral victory of your campaigns and your struggles.
“What we have done in the past few days is to facilitate dialogue with the law enforcement and security agencies.”