The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari over his government ongoing divisive and repressive steps against the EndSARS protesters.
In a joint statement issued yesterday, entitled, ‘You can’t kill EndSARS with terror,’ the SMBLF leaders condemned the restrictions on the protesters’ accounts by the apex bank and the demonisation of the protesters by the government and its sympathisers.
The statement was signed by Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-south); Yinka Odumakin (South-west); Chief Guy Ikokwu (South-east) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt).
The SMBLF lamented that if the country is properly governed, what should be happening now is proper healing and ensuring the country does not have to go through another unrest again.
The forum, while demanding the release of all those arrested or their being charged to court without delay, said the Buhari administration is sowing another seed that could trigger a bigger crisis.
“We did not miss the projection when we interpreted President Muhammadu Buhari’s regrets of his accepting the #ENDSARS demands quickly as being seen as a sign of weakness in his last broadcast as a declaration that he would bare his fangs and ruthlessly deal with the protesters after the unwarranted and wicked killings of some of them at Lekki Tollgate and other places.
“There have been reports of preventing leaders and supporters of the protest from travelling and alleged seizures of their travelling documents and freezing of their bank accounts without court process at a time the Attorney-General of the Federation is asking UAE authorities to give him the records of trials of six Nigerian Boko Haram funders convicted in that country by the highest court so he can certify whether justice was done or not,” the group said.
