Human rights lawyer and activist, Inibehe Effiong, has blamed the various attacks launched in guise of #EndSARS protests on the hoodlums sponsored by federal and state government.
Nigerians at home and abroad have been clamouring against police brutality and the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for nearly two weeks.
These agitations have hit the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and other major cities in the country. The protests have been largely peaceful save for the hijack by hoodlums at a few locations.
POLITICS NIGERIA had reported the jail-break in Edo, killings in Ibadan and how hoodlums pretending to be #EndSARS protesters burnt down a police station in Lagos.
Reacting to these developments, Mr Effiong, in as statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, said; “the escalation of coordinated attacks on peaceful #EndSARS in Abuja, Edo, Lagos and other parts of the country by armed thugs and other criminal elements gives credence to the desperation of the federal
and state governments to use every conceivable primitive, unlawful and extra-judicial means to discredit and scuttle the genuine agitations of aggrieved protesters.”
He noted that the attacks on police stations in Edo and Lagos States have been cited by governors of these States as a basis for imposing questionable curfews.
” One can reasonably infer, that these attacks are ostensibly sponsored by persons who are sympathetic to the government as part of an orchestrated plot to unleash the military on protesters to truncate the nationwide movement for police reform and good governance.”
“From the start of the nation-wide protests, about two dozen peaceful protesters have been murdered by security officers and murderous thugs actively aided and abetted by law enforcement agencies and state actors in different parts of the country.”
The human rights activist added that protesters have remained peaceful and law abiding despite the provocations resulting from extra-judicial killings
“Protesters have been working to restore law and sanity as part of their civic responsibility. We have seen protesters offering food and water to police officers. We have seen protesters clearing the streets of dirt. These same protesters have volunteered to control the flow of traffic in Lagos and other parts of the country,” he cited.
Mr Effiong said it is unacceptable that the police is yet to nab the thugs and their sponsors who are committing murder, arson and other criminal activities. “Rather, we have seen pictorial evidence of thugs being conveyed in police vehicles.This can only mean that the government and the thugs are in sync.”
“It is therefore offensive, hypocritical and deceitful for a government that has been complicit in the attacks on peaceful protesters, to rely on acts of violence perpetuated by thugs and other criminal elements who are working to disrupt the protests for the benefit of the same government, as a justification for more state-sanctioned violence,” he said.
