Less than 24 hours to the nationwide protest for August 1, 2024, security agencies in Ondo state on wednesday said no group has indicated interest in participating in the action in Ondo state.
This is as they called on people of the state not to reenact the EndSARS and Kenya experiences by allowing peace to reign in the country.
Abayomi Oladipo, the Ondo state Commissioner of Police, while addressing journalists on Wednesday in Akure alongside other security agencies said all the security agencies are fully on ground to ensure there is peace in the state.
According to him, “what we are saying is that we should allow peace to reign in Ondo state, as it stands today in Ondo state, there have not been any group of persons who have indicated interest to participate in the protest in line with virtual meeting held by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun that they should documents their presence, locations with the police with the purpose of providing them adequate security for them to ventilate their concerns.”
Oladipo said further; “We all aware of what is on ground in the country as relates to protest by the citizens of this country titled “EndBadGovernance”, which built to start from August 1st to 10th.
“We are on the frontline and I want to let you know that protest is a fundamental rights in any democracy and no responsible government will want to take away the right under the section 40 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
“The citizens have right to freely assemble and ventilate their concerns as to how they have governed. However, other Nigerians that are not interested in being part in the protest have their rights as well to freedom of movement. We all have the right and that right must be protected by the two sides.
“We have the mandate to protect all citizens and residents of this country by ensuring that those who are going to embark on lawful peaceful protest are protected from being infiltrated by hoodlums who may want to hijack or take advantage of the protest to create confusion and mayhem in the state
“I want to say that there is a line in peaceful and violence protest, we have the mandate to protect and maintain public order. It is not police business alone, there is synergy between all the security agencies to ensure that EndSars and Kenya experience is not reenacted in this country.
“We would not allow the situation to degenerate into confusion that property and public infrastructure would be destroyed. We want to use this opportunity to assure the citizenry, both the residents and indigenes of Ondo state that we are prepared to protect them against any violence.
“In case you have an information as to activities of any persons to create confusion, people should free to pass the information to all the security agencies in the state so that we can adequately response to such situations.
“We want to advise and appeal to traditional rulers, labour unions leaders to appeal to their people to allow peace to reign in this country, we have any other country that we can call our own than Nigeria.
“We are not taking it for granted, because people have not indicated interest, but we want to say that peaceful protest will be allowed. We must allow peace to reign. We should all be rest assured that we will provide adequate security for all citizens,” the CP said.
