The Presidency has voiced concern over a post on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s X page, cautioning security personnel against using lethal force on protesters.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency claimed that those whom the former Vice President referred to as protesters were actually looters and arsonists disguising as protesters.
The statement reads: “As a statesman, his warning should have been directed at the looting mobs in Kaduna, Kano, Plateau, and Jigawa states, who hijacked what was advertised by organizers as a peaceful protest.”
“Our security forces have remained professional, even-handed, and exercised restraint in the face of extreme provocation by the rioters. We are surprised that Alhaji Atiku is still relying on Section 40 of our constitution (as amended) to justify what is now clearly a riot and rampage in some parts of the country. Section 45 of the constitution states that the right of assembly and the right of freedom of expression are not absolute.”
“They can be abridged and fettered in the interest of public peace, public safety, law, and order”, it emphasises.
The Presidency stresses that the Service Chiefs reiterated the rights of Nigerians to protest and gather freely, adding that they, however, reinforced their constitutional duty, when they said they cannot sit by idly and watch hoodlums destroy the country and its democracy.
It says Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should instead commend the Service Chiefs and officers and men of security outfits for their patriotic duty to Nigeria.
“As a supporter and enabler of the destructive ‘protests’, Alhaji Atiku certainly wants the sinister protest to continue despite the red signals from the streets.
“A tweet that condones the destruction of private and public property and investments of citizens is unbecoming of a former vice president of Nigeria.
“Alhaji Atiku ought to have risen above the sentiment he expressed and put the interest of our country’s stability ahead of whatever advantages he hoped to reap from the insurrection on our streets”, the Presidency warns.
It however encourages Alhaji Atiku to borrow a leaf from opposition figures in United Kingdom who have rallied behind the government to condemn the ongoing riots in the Kingdom, calling for the arrest and prosecution of those behind the wanton destruction of public and private assets.
“Such nationalistic temperament as displayed by opposition figures like Rishi Sunak, the immediate-past Prime Minister of UK is expected of Alhaji Atiku”, it added. .
Report By Bello Wakili
