By Damilare Adeleye
Human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), has asked youths to immediately suspend the ongoing #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests to avoid more casualties.
The protest, which kicked off yesterday in major cities across Nigeria, was billed to hold for 10 days between August 1 to 10 over the current economic hardship in the country.
“Though the intention of the organisers was 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,” Adegboruwa said in a statement issued on Friday.
“I appeal to the protesters to withdraw themselves from their various protest grounds and to suspend the protests immediately and indefinitely, in order 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.
The lawyer to the Take It Back Movement, one of the groups that organised the protests, regretted some deaths and losses recorded during the demonstrations, saying it was not the goal of the protests.
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 Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had on the eve of the protests on Wednesday urged the organisers to reduce the 10-day action to one day.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to “directly address the nation and then engage the protesters, through their representatives”, adding that the government should thereafter set up a committee comprising men and women of integrity to meet with the protesters to address the issues that they have raised.