ENDSARS Protest: Glaring Snobbish Silence Of President Buhari, Unacceptable- PDP
…Calls a stop to massacre of Nigeria Youths
BY GRACE ANYANWU, ABUJA – The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday said that it finds the glaring snobbish silence of President Muhammadu Buhari and the injection of violence into the peaceful #ENDSARS Protester as unacceptable.
The Party said the injection of violence into the ENDSARS protests has paved the way for the deployment of the military to murder innocent harmless Nigeria youths
National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who stated these at a press conference in Abuja, said that rather than emulate legitimate responses of civilized leaders to protests of this nature across the democratic nations globally, the President Buhari-led administration prefers the ignominious option of the 1989 Tiananmen Square in China that ended with military crackdown that became known in history as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Secondus noted that the APC-led Federal Government that should be concerned about national security has also dangerously gone ahead to encourage violence by deploying troops against protesting citizens.
He said that this was callously done on Tuesday night at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos where some group of armed uniformed soldiers of the Nigeria Army opened fire on protesting youths killing and maiming several of them.
According to Secondus; “PDP stands shoulder to shoulder with all the victims of this brutal attitude and condemns in strongest term, the mindless and inhuman shooting of citizens, an action that runs foul of every national and international laws. We also urge the protesting youths to ensure that they continue to be peaceful even in the face of provocations”.
Secondus further said that the PDP as the main opposition party which has carefully watched the development, views the dimension the federal government is directing the protest as unfortunate and dangerous to national cohesion and peace.
The PDP National Chairman noted that as the needless bloodletting rages, the President, Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari has continued to keep mum behaving exactly like Nero who played fiddle while Rome burned.
He also said that the calls by reasonable heads in the land including from the nation’s Senate for the President to respond appropriately has fallen on deaf ears.
In the words of Secondus; “We therefore wish to state unequivocally that the President has an honourable option in the face of the glaring incompetence in governance to declare a national emergency in the nation’s security architecture.
“We also request for the immediate setting up of an independent judicial panel to look into the handling of this peaceful protest especially as it relates the role of security agencies,” the PDP boss said.
Secondus said that for nearly two weeks, Nigeria youths have been revolting through a peaceful protest against Police brutality as mirrored by a unit of the Nigeria Police force called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
He noted that the youths have been carrying out this constitutional obligation peacefully across the country without any molestation and registering their grievances appropriately to relevant authorities.
According to him; “The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu swiftly responded to the youth outcry by disbanding the notorious SARS, replacing it with SWAT, an action that did not go down well with protesters who demanded instead the total and unconditional overhaul of the entire nation’s security architecture.
“This responsibility rests squarely with the federal Government who controls and manages the Police force. But rather than do something urgently as a committed and civilized government, the federal government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari chose instead to remain mum in the face of the people’s legitimate outcry for attention and justice”.
