Okwe Obi, Abuja
Coalition of 200 Civil Society Organisations, has appealed to President Mohammadu Buhari, to stop the wanton looting and destruction of government facilities, particularly police stations by hoodlums, following the #EndSARS protest, lamenting that the situation would plunge the country into anarchy.
Aside announcing its exit from the protest, it called on state governments to engage the youth in town-hall meeting to broker peace, and to stop further killings and destruction property.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed yesterday by the representatives of Coalition of Human Rights Advocates (COHURA), Conference of Africa Mothers Forum (COAMOF), Justice and Equity Network (JUEGN), Justice And people’s Network (JUPENE); Dr Banjo Ayodele, Ngozi Okocha, Zainab Alkali and, Festus Igbokwe respectively.
Ayodele said: “We wish to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately restore law and order in Nigeria. We also urge all the governors to commence youths town-hall meetings across the entire state of federation because direct engagement with the youth is the best way to achieve peace.
“How do we justify the wanton destruction of both private and public properties in Lagos and other parts of the country? Is this part of the protest? Certainly not. This is a clear act of criminality that should not be tolerated.
“Many people have lost their lives just as many means of livelihood have been destroyed by these set of criminals! Security forces are now helpless as they don’t want to be seen as using excessive force on the criminals.
“As the situation keeps deteriorating on an hourly basis, we strongly believe that it is time to act decisively before we are plunged into a full anarchy.
“These criminals and their sponsors must be stopped, arrested and all the items stolen recovered as well as be made to face prosecution.
“We urge the President to see this as the time to demonstrate to Nigerians that he truly swore an oath to protect their lives.
“Criminals have hijacked the entire country and if nothing is done quickly, we will have ourselves to be blame.
“With the deliberate burning down of police stations and looting of their armouries in Lagos, Ogun, Aba, Nnewi and some other parts of the South, it has become clear that these people are common criminals who have been looking for means to weaken our security agencies.
“We urge the security agencies and our youths with goodwill to rise up and defend the country now.”
He added: “While we appreciate and welcome international collaborations and solidarities, we enjoin them to do proper investigations before meddling into our issues.
“Anything outside this would be seen as their desperate efforts to instigate gullible youths against our constituted authorities.
“No country in the world will take the level of destructions as seen in the last few days in Nigeria without taking actions to restore law and order.
“Nigeria belongs to us and it is a sovereign state with all the laws to guide its citizens.”