President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the administration’s readiness to decisively deal with hoodlums and hooligans hiding behind peaceful protests to disrupt public peace.
This is coming as organizers of #EndSARS, who raised awareness on the social media, said the second phase was to demand the release of all protesters detained following the first phase.
But the President warned against disturbing public peace on Monday while virtually declaring the Chief of Army Staff’s Annual Conference 2020 open from the State House in Abuja.
The President assured that his administration is still committed to ensuring that rights of Nigerians to peacefully protest are protected, he, however, added that such rights must be responsibly explored and must be in accordance with the laws of the land.
The President recounted that the #ENDSARS protests were sadly hijacked by hooligans to cause wanton damage to lives and property in many cities across the country.
In a statement issued by Mr Femi Adesina, his special adviser on Media and Publicity, President Buhari commended the Nigerian Armed Forces for their efforts at swiftly restoring law and order in various states during the large-scale criminality that ensued in the wake of the #ENDSARS protests.
Elsewhere, supporters of the planned protests, which have remained a trending topic across social media platforms since last week, said they were undeterred by the threats by security operatives.
Organizers of #ENDSARS protests are mobilising on social media and want restrictions on all accounts of #EndSARS leaders at the instance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lifted.
In Lagos, the police, said no such gathering or protest would be permitted.
A statement from the police, said that some unpatriotic individuals and groups were planning to embark on the replica of the recent destructive and violent protests that unleashed pains and agony on Lagos.
The statement reads: “The command has reliably gathered intelligence that certain individuals/groups have concluded plans to lure unsuspecting Lagosians, especially youths, into their planned protest which is proposed to commence December 7 (today) at designated locations in the state.
