THE Nigeria Labour Congress today called on the Federal and State Governments to stop the “massacre” of citizens during the ongoing #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest.
The NLC, in a statement signed by its National President, Joe Ajaero which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, said the deployment of security operatives to the venue where citizens were peacefully protesting instead of deploying them against bandits was thoughtless.
Ajaero said the police, not the citizens introduced violence to the peaceful protests.
“With unconfirmed reports putting casualties at 40+ in two days of managing the EndHunger protest across the country, we have sufficient reasons (backed up by reports and video clips) to call to question the professionalism of our security personnel as this represents nothing but massacre of citizens. Had the security personnel deployed the same thoughtless brutal precision against bandits or other criminals, our country would have been an eldorado,” he said.
“As the lead agency in internal security management, the police bear the burden of this massacre. Kaduna State police command under the watch of Compol Audu Ali Dabigi represents the worst-case scenario in which one of the fleeing protesters was heard on camera desperately appealing to deployed police personnel to not shoot until his voice was drowned by a hail of bullets with the resultant death of a protester on the spot and several injured.
“In the same breadth, Edo State Police Command under the personal command of COMPOL Funsho Adegboroye represents the best in crowd management as he could be heard interacting and cajoling the protesters and almost effortlessly bringing them under control.
“It might be convenient to argue that the two states do have different socio-cultural milieus, however, an incontestable truth common to both, and indeed, all the states is that human life is sacred and should never be taken.
We are deeply saddened by this wanton taking of life by trigger-happy police personnel.”