PROTEST: Order Your Soldiers To Remain In Barracks, We Don’t Want Another EndSARS Incident – Army Chief Warned
Activist and human rights lawyer, Deji Adeyanju has called on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, to withdraw soldiers deployed across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and other cities ahead of the proposed nationwide protest.
The PUNCH had reported the increased presence of security operatives, including military men, within the FCT ahead of the nationwide protests scheduled for August 1 to 10.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj Gen Edward Buba, denied that the deployment was intended to intimidate protesters. He said, “Troops have always been deployed across the country in counter-terrorism and counter- insurgency operations. There is nothing new about that (deployment), please.”
However, in a letter addressed to the Chief of Army Staff on Tuesday, Adeyanju argued that providing security during protests is the job of the police.
He recalled that the deployment of soldiers for protests in Kenya and during the 2020 #EndSARS protest resulted to riots.
Adeyanju said, “We write as a pro- human rights law firm to draw your attention to the disturbing deployment of men of the Nigerian Army across the Federal Capital Territory and other cities to suppress the scheduled August 1, 2024, national protest.
“The task of providing internal security, including the protection of protesters during the scheduled protest, lies with the Nigerian Police Force and not the Nigerian Army.
You may also recall that at all times when the armed forces intervened in any protest, including the recent ongoing Kenya protest, such protests often escalated into full-blown riots leading to loss of lives and property.
“It is on the premise of the foregoing that we urge you to withdraw your men back to the barracks as we do not want a repeat of soldiers killing protesters as was witnessed during EndSARS.”
In another development, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lacks the moral authority to stop the planned #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria protest because he is the biggest beneficiary of protests. Secondus said this in a statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media), Ike Abonyi, in Abuja, on Tuesday. He recalled that Tinubu, while in opposition, was a notable arrowhead in anti-government protests and wondered why he should be selfish on it this time.
The ex-PDP Chairman noted that Nigerians have a civic duty to save our dear country from collapse in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis and insecurity occasioned by perennial bad governance by all tiers.
of successive governments. He further argued that the state of anomie in which we find ourselves today has incrementally worsened because Nigerians failed in their duty to hold governments at all levels to account.
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