The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence on the EndSARS protests paved the way for the military to kill innocent youths at Lekki toll gate.
It compared the killing with the1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China that ended with military crackdown.
At a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, described the president’s silence as unacceptable.
Wearing a mournful look, Secondus, who stressed that the PDP would not play politics with lives, begged the president to speak with the youths because they are his children.
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He said, “The PDP finds the glaring snobbish silence of the President and the injection of violence into the peaceful protest as unacceptable as it paved the way for the deployment of the military to murder innocent harmless Nigeria youths
“This was callously done on Tuesday night at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos where some group of armed uniformed soldiers of the Nigeria Army opened fire on protesting youths killing and maiming several of them.
“PDP stands shoulder to shoulder with all the victims of this brutal attitude and condemns in strongest term, the mindless and inhuman shooting of citizens, an action that runs foul of every national and international laws.”
Secondus, who accused the government of failing to recognise the right to peaceful protest and assembly, however, urged the protesting youths to ensure that they continued to be peaceful even in the face of provocations.
He noted that the youths had been carrying out peaceful protest across the country without any molestation and registering their grievances appropriately to relevant authorities.
He said, “The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, swiftly responded to the youth outcry by disbanding the notorious SARS, replacing it with SWAT, an action that did not go down well with protesters who demanded instead the total and unconditional overhaul of the entire nation’s security architecture.
“This responsibility rests squarely with the federal Government who controls and manages the Police force.
“But rather than do something urgently as a committed and civilized government, the federal government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari chose instead to remain mum in the face of the people’s legitimate outcry for attention and justice.”
Secondus said the president had the honourable option to declare national emergency in the nation’s security architecture “in the face of the glaring incompetence in governance.”
He also requested immediate setting up of an independent judicial panel to look into the handling of the peaceful protest especially as it related to the role of security agencies.
