“Govt must accept responsibility for endSARS protest violence”
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae has urged the federal government to accept its responsibilty for the the protest that followed the protest.
The elderstateman in an interview monitored in the Vanguard newspaper, said, protest is a legitimate and healthy part of any democracy.
According to him, it was wrong and undemocratic for government to use violence on peaceful protesters.
He said, “When a peaceful protest is hijacked, the question is, by who? Surely, it’s not those who organize the peaceful protest, you don’t hijack your own peaceful protest, it’s other people who could have been put up by the government to give a dog a bad name and hang it.
“The way the EndSARS protest was organized, I was impressed, it was matured, peaceful and patriotic.
“The security people saw that it was developing a lot of interest by behaving responsibly and to destroy and give them a bad name, they organized people and shot at them, why did they shoot at them?
“They were not dangerous, not attacking anybody, they were singing, why did they have to shoot them? That’s the question and it was the military that shot them, so, it was the government that disrupted the protest without any justification”.
He accused the government of hijacking the protest without any justification.
“So, hijacking came later but who hijacked, I don’t know but what I know is that the #EndSARS protesters were not the people who hijacked the protest, you don’t hijack your own protest.
“Therefore, what is dangerous is government using violence on peaceful protesters, it’s uncivilized and it is to be condemned, particularly as it now gave opportunity to disruptive elements in the society to hijack protest and start making violence in the country, the government must accept its responsibility for the violence that followed the protest.”, Falae added
