Kill bandits, not peaceful protesters, Ajaero tells Police

The leadership of the organised labour, on Saturday, warned the Nigeria Police Force and other security forces to stop what it described as “massacre” of protesters carrying out nationwide demonstration against hunger in the land. It also called on President Bola Tinubu to solve present crisis in the country and proffer solutions to all the […]

The leadership of the organised labour, on Saturday, warned the Nigeria Police Force and other security forces to stop what it described as “massacre” of protesters carrying out nationwide demonstration against hunger in the land.

It also called on President Bola Tinubu to solve present crisis in the country and proffer solutions to all the demands of protesting Nigerians.

President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, said the clearest path to a lasting solution is for the government to sit down with leaders of the protest and negotiate in good faith, insisting that threats by police and the military would solve anything.

Ajaero, who also questioned the professionalism of the police high command and its officers being superintend by Kayode Egbetokun, said the police, the lead security agency in managing internal security bear the massacre.

• Protest: Your silence sending a dangerous signal, PDP tells Tinubu
• Security operatives shoot at protesters, journalists in Abuja

The labour leader said the police officers should divert their energy towards marauding bandits wrecking havocs in the country and be brutal against them rather than innocent Nigerians demanding their rights.

“With unconfirmed reports putting casualties at 40+ in two days of managing the 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. As the lead-agency in internal security management, the police bear the burden of this massacre,” he said

Ajaero said Kaduna State police command under the watch of Audu Ali Dabigi, a Commissioner of Police, “represents the worst case scenario in which one of the fleeing protesters was heard on camera desperately appealing to the deployed police personnel not to shoot until his voice was drowned by a hail of bullets with the resultant death of a protester on the spot and several injured.”

He added, “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 millieux, 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. In Asokoro, Abuja under the command of Compol Bennett Igweh, protesters were heard querying why the police were shelling or tear-gassing them as they were marching solemnly without breaking a twig.

“One noticeable pattern was that once police personnel introduced violence, all hell broke loose in fulfilment of the credo that violence begets violence. We pause to ask, what happened to all the years of training or experience?

“No lessons learnt or was this a case of loss of human values on an industrial scale? Don’t our police personnel watch their colleagues in other parts of the world manage equally challenging (if not worse) situations?”

The labour leader demanded that the cops with blood stains on their hands be fished out for appropriate disciplinary action as well as their commanders.

He also requested that the adequate compensations should be paid to the families of casualties while government should be responsible for the treatment and rehabilitation of the injured.

While commending the Nigeria Bar Association for their intervention in directing its human rights committees to be vigilant, he demanded that also demanded that all those arrested should be released immediately and unconditionally.

He stated, “We commend NBA national leadership for directing its human rights committees across the cities to be vigilant. We urge them to see it to it that no one is held against their will in connection with the protest.

“On no account again should the police use live ammunition in managing protests no matter how difficult they get. In the days ahead, we look forward to a better crowd control mechanism even as the new directive from the IGP would sound to some of the personnel as a license to kill without reason.

“We would be monitoring closely as the situation unfolds. The police as the lead-agency vested with power and authority on issues of internal security should not only lead by (a good) example but an inspiration to other services.

“However, if the police in self-righteousness consider this advice as meddlesomeness and persist in their slaughter, they will be unwittingly creating a situation they were supposed to help avert in the first place. And we as members of organised labour will be left with no choice than the moral burden to act in protection of ordinary citizens.

“Finally, we do believe the ultimate solution lies with government, the decisions it takes, the compromises it is willing to make in the face of the genuine demands by the protesters.

“As we had stated in our statements of July 22nd and 23rd, the clearest path to a lasting solution is for government to sit down with leaders of the protest and negotiate in good faith. Time is of essence as no one is impressed by the sophistry of government officials/ hirelings or threats by the police or the military. We are all Nigerians, after all.”