Umar Namadi, Governor of Jigawa says protest can’t give desired outcome as he lifts the 24-hour curfew placed on the state after the first day of the #EndBadGovernance protest on August 1.
The governor lifted the 24-hour restriction to allow Muslims go for the Friday Jumat prayers. However, the curfew continues after the prayers, according to Namadi in a statement on TVC.
“We believe this protest will not be the solution to what people in Jigawa are asking for. We are all Muslims and we believe that there’s nobody in this world that can put hardship on you. It’s only Allah that can rescue you from that hardship,” said Namadi during a live broadcast on TVC.
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The protest which took place across many states in Nigeria, started as a peaceful walk against soaring food prices, removal of fuel subsidy and bad governance, but became violent in some states.
“Protest is not a solution and it will not be a solution. We realise that how people use young boys to achieve their objective of vandalising and stealing people’s property is not part of our culture and it’s not part of our tradition. Therefore, we feel as a government, we should not allow this thing to continue unabated,” the governor added.
The ‘Hunger Protest’ as it is also called, turned violent and led to the death of six Nigerians in Suleja, Niger State, three in Kaduna and four people in Maiduguri, Borno State.
“For the sake of Friday prayers, we are relaxing the curfew from 12 noon to 2.30 p.m. and from there, I would allow people to go to the mosque and pray for the state and pray for the nation. But after 2.30 p.m., the curfew will continue,” the governor said.
However, he noted that the curfew will continue until the state government of Jigawa has reviewed the situation with the security agencies and believes it’s time to relax it.
