By Abiola Olawale
A human rights activist and Lagos-based Lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), has called on the youths to immediately suspend the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests.
Adegboruwa, who said he is writing as a solicitor to the “Take It Back Movement,”one of the groups that organised the protests, raised the alarm that the demonstrations have been infiltrated by some “angry persons.”
He claimed that those “angry persons” were allegedly behind the vandalisation and looting of public and private properties on the first day of the nationwide protest.
The legal luminary, in a statement issued on Friday, also regretted some deaths and losses recorded during the demonstrations, saying it was not the goal of the protests.
The statement reads in part: “Though the organisers intended 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,” he said in a statement on Friday.
“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.
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”.
The New Diplomat reports that the protests, which began on Thursday, have escalated in various parts of the country , especially in the Northern part of Nigeria.
For instance, in Kano State, several suspected hoodlums took advantage of the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests to set ablaze vehicles parked in the premises of the State High Court.
Similarly, a newly built Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) Industrial Park in Kano was also looted on the first day of the nationwide protests against economic hardship
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.
