There was a twist to #ENDSARS protest Wednesday as some armed youth attacked peaceful protesters in Abuja, the nation’s capital city and Lagos – the country’s economic nerve centre.
The development came as a coalition of Kano youth warned that the disbandment of the SARS would increase the rate of criminal activities in the country.
For the seventh day, the protesters carried on despite the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad by the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar Adamu.
In its place, the IGP Tuesday announced a new unit called Special Weapon and Tactics Team (SWAT), even as a presidential panel okayed the five demands of the protesting youth.
Abuja
The protest turned bloody Wednesday afternoon when some armed youth, numbering about 50, besieged the popular Berger Roundabout where the protesters were gathered.
Characteristic of the protest, the anti-SARS group blocked all the roads leading to Berger roundabout with planks and disused tyres among others, and created a heavy gridlock for motorists as well as commuters.
And in the midst of their protest, the hoodlums, at about 1.p.m, came from Mabushi end and hit the protesters by surprise, with passersby, motorists and protesters running for cover.
As a first measure, our reporter who was at the scene of the incident, said the hoodlums headed for the cars, believed to have been owned by the protesters and vandalised their vehicles.
Still not satisfied with the vandalisation of the vehicles, the armed youth switched over to the protesters, who in turn swooped on their attackers, wielding cudgels, machetes and related weapons.
It was further gathered that the anti-SARS protesters turned the table against their assailants as they, in their number, mobilised and heavily descended on them.
Although no life was lost, several people were injured on both sides.
“We inflicted serious injuries on these thugs because we were more than them in number. We were resilient, firm and determined to rout them. That really helped us a great deal. It might interest you to know that we (our medical team) had to treat some of them even after inflicting serious injuries on them,” said one of the protesters who simply gave her name as Biola.
Although there are speculations that the thugs were paid between N1,000 and N2,000 by some top government functionaries to carry out the attack, Blueprint could not confirm this as at the time of this report.
Undeterred by the development, the protesters continued with their peaceful activities after normalcy returned, chanting anti-SARS slogans to drive home their call for a complete police reform.
Meanwhile, the protesting group, via its twitter handle-Kelvin Odanz@Mr Odanz, had assured all those whose cars were damaged of succour.
They directed those affected to list their names while the group promised to engage technicians and related artisans to fix their cars.
They also vowed to gather Thursday at Lugbe by Shoprite, to continue with their advocacy at 8.am.
In a related development, a pro-SARS supporters’ group called Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (COCSOs) took to the streets of Abuja Tuesday to support efforts at ridding the country of crimes.
The group said the continuous protests against the SARS operatives were aimed at bringing down the government.
COCSO Chief Convener Olayemi Success, and Co-Convener Kabiru Dallah spoke to journalists on their mission, alleging the internet fraudsters as being behind the anti-SARS protesters.
“This solidarity march is very important to boost the morale of the policemen and women, for them to know that well-meaning Nigerians appreciate their sacrifices in securing Nigeria, we are convinced that Police is our friend and everyone that sees police as enemies are suspects,” Success said.
Lagos attack
Also at 3.pm Wednesday, there was a similar attack on protesters at the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, with the hoodlums carting away some of their personal effects.
A Premium Times reporter, who was present during the attack, saw two of the attackers arrive with brand new machetes and axes to rob protesters of their phones., one of which was later recovered.
The incident, however, turned violent after the hoodlums, who were now in their numbers, began brandishing their machetes and were ready to attack.
Some of the protesters sustained minor injuries and their phones stolen during the attack.
The crowd of protesters, however, regrouped and chased after the hoodlums, apprehended three and handed them over to the police division at the Alausa Secretariat.
Some of the protesters accused the government of sponsoring the hoodlums.
One of the protesters, Taiwo Hassan Soweto, who apprehended the hoodlums in Lagos, maintained that they were sponsored.
“We want to accuse the Buhari government of wanting to commit ethnic division and violence in order to crush this movement,” he said.
Soweto added that new axes, cutlass and amulets were recovered from the hoodlums and have all been handed over to the police.
The arrested suspects are; Damilola Balogun, Sulaiman Adekunle and Niyi Faloba.
Kano
Meanwhile, Kano state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has described intelligent and result-oriented police as the best way of effecting far-reaching reforms of the Nigeria Police Force to enhance its combat readiness in bursting crimes.
Speaking Wednesday at a rally organised by a coalition of youth at the main entrance of Government House Kano, Ganduje said it is high time the IGP ridded the force of bad eggs denting its image, adding that peace could only be engendered with the police waxing stronger.
He said the coalition of youth in the state had remarkably cooperated with the state government and security agencies in conducting a peaceful rally aimed at drawing the attention of the federal government in effecting the reforms that would be an all-encompassing one.
Governor Ganduje said: “Police personnel are indispensable in the quest for maintaining law and order. They protect peoples’ lives and property. They belong to an important institution that must be supported by every citizen. They are indispensable, we cannot live and exist without them. We must support them to forge ahead.”
“Once we decided to ignore them, we are doing it at our own peril. We are inundated with reports here and there all over the country about the reformation of the police.
“We must commend the president for setting the machinery of effecting the reforms, through the office of the IGP. In fact, it was a good riddance worthy of praising the President.”
Earlier, national coordinator, Coalition of Youths, Comrade Khalid Kani, said the coalition had conceived the idea of convening the peaceful protest as a demonstration of youths’ opposition to the disbandment of the SARS.
He said disbanding the squad would slow down the fight against perpetrators of banditry and other forms of criminality .
While commending the federal government for introducing SWAT, Khalil said with the introduction of the unit, the police had allayed the fear of everyone of an improved policing.
Oyo
Amidst all this, Oyo state Governor Seyi Makinde described the increasing wave of youth unemployment in Nigeria as a time-bomb.
The governor raised the alarm Tuesday in Ogbomoso during his visit to Soun of Ogbomosoland, Oba Oladunni Oyewumi whose palace was attacked by protesters during the EndSARS protest in the town Sunday.
The governor said the ongoing #EndSARS protests across Nigeria were a wake-up call to the leadership of the country to put things in order.
“Let me also say that this is a wake-up call for us. As leaders, we must ensure that we quickly look at how to make most of our youth engaged, otherwise, this will definitely continue. I did not expect the level of destruction we have witnessed here. I accept the fact that peaceful protest is legitimate and it is guaranteed under our Constitution, but this type of destruction should not have happened at all.
“Unemployment for our youth is a time-bomb. All of us who are here today could not sleep well when we heard about what happened in the palace,” the governor said.
Lamenting the attack on the Soun’s palace, Makinde said: “Oyo state government is not in control of SARS, even though they will say the governor is the chief security officer for the state.
“I am not in control of the Commissioner of Police as the governor of Oyo state. I am not in control of who they will post here as commissioner. We just work with whoever we meet along the way. We will have to engage with our people. At the heart of this is not just the issue of SARS, there has been pent-up anger. The issue of the pandemic, unemployment and other factors are those things that led to what we are seeing today.”
He gave N1 million each to the families of the deceased.
Responding, the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Ajagungbade III, appreciated the governor’s visit and urged those in government to wake up to their responsibilities.
He said: “We are not very happy seeing our youths engaging in vandalism in the name of protests like this, because they do not have any job. This is important and that is why they have the mind to do bad things. Therefore, it is the duty of the government to ensure the youths are employed so that we will stop witnessing things like this.”
‘State police to the rescue’
Beyond all this, former Deputy President of the Senate Ike Ekweremadu renewed his call for the decentralisation of policing and institution of state police, saying it remains the best way out.
Ekweremadu regretted that the bill to amend the constitution to create state police, which he sponsored in the 8th Senate as well as the current Senate, had not received the required political support.
In a statement Wednesday by his media aide, Mr Uche Anichukwu, he said the replacement of SARS with SWAT amounted to addressing the symptoms rather than the real illness.
He said: “The ongoing street protests over the excesses of elements in the Nigeria Police did not come to me as a surprise. As a matter of fact, I had always known, and warned severally that a day would come when Nigerians would no longer tolerate the worsening insecurity in the land and the excesses of those charged with protecting lives and property.
“The problem with our policing and the attendant insecurity and excesses are engraved majorly in Section 214 (1) of the 1999 constitution, which provides that ‘There shall be a police force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the federation or any part thereof.
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“This informed my Bill for the creation of State Police with adequate provisions in the mode of financing, control, and appointments of the high commands of such state police services to insulate them from any forms of abuse and give citizens roles in the various state Police Service Commissions. Unfortunately, this has not received the requisite political support. I call on the president and political stakeholders, once more, to seize the opportunity of the widespread demands for police reforms by Nigerians to do the right thing, addressing the structural challenges.”
Buhari address the nation – CNPP
But the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) is insisting President Muhammadu Buhari must address the nation to douse the rising tension.
In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the CNPP said, “there is a time silence is not golden and such a time is now.”
“For the President to continue to keep quiet while peacefully protesting young Nigerians are being brutalised and killed by security operatives raises doubt on how sensitive the current administration is to the plights of suffering Nigerians.
“In case Mr President and his handlers have forgotten, in the dark days of military dictatorship both the people and the Nigerian media were gagged using the barrels of the gun but it never worked.
“If it didn’t work under the military dictatorships in the past, how do President Buhari and his handlers think rolling out tanks and oppressive weapons will be an answer to genuine demand for reforming the Nigeria Police Force?
“In case Mr President is not aware, our findings since the current unrest in the country show that the people are determined and continued deployment of security forces against the citizens will worsen the situation as bottled anger in the last five years of maladministration will finally be unleashed by the citizens.
“We then call on Mr President to immediately address the nation and order security agencies to leave the protesters alone. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should do the needful urgently and stop an obviously impending national outrage against the government it formed in 2015, CNPP counselled.”
