Protests: Organised Civil Society Tasks FG to Dialogue with Protesterd

The organised Civil Society under the umbrella of the United Action Front of the Civil Society(UAFCS) has  called on the Federal Government and the  sub national governments in Nigeria to urgently initiate dialogue with leaders of the nationwide protests against Hunger and Hardship, planned to commence on  Tuesday ( today)  to avert another round of  mass action in the country.

Head, Coordinating Secretariat, United Action Front of Civil Society, Olawale Okunniyi  expressed concern over government’s reluctance  to dialogue with citizens who are  protesting excruciating hardship in the country.  Okuniyi attributed the hardships on the unilateral and arbitrary economic policies of the current administration.

“Given our experience as Leaders of the organised civil society and pro democracy movement, we are concerned that this second protests may lead to a prolonged mass action that may stall governance and wellbeing of the country for a long time.

“Therefore wish to urge the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun to ensure that his men comply with ethical and acceptable security practice of managing civil protests universally, especially in refraining from the application of lethal weapons or coercive force during protests so as not to aggravate the disagreement and turn the peaceful protests of citizens into unwanted and unintended violence and riots.

“Similarly, we wish to counsel government to learn to involve credible leaders of the organised civil society and leaders of citizens action in its implementation of some of the demands of the nationwide protests for veritable awareness of the Nigerian public and optimum results, ” he said

Okunniyi  disclosed  that the civil society group will open its situation rooms with experienced civil society monitors by 12 midnight today. The essence of the situation room, he said, was to monitor, collate and report incidents from the nationwide protests for the purpose of ensuring compliance of government and protesters alike to ethical and acceptable practice of peaceful and civil protests worldwide.