#EndSARS: Declare State Of Emergency On National Security, PDP Tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on national security.

The party made the call against the backdrop of growing tension following the nationwide #ENDSARS protests.

National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, stated this while addressing a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

Secondus also urged the federal government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to reveal those responsible for Tuesday’s shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos, that reportedly led to the death of some of the protesters.

His call came shortly after the Progressives Governors Forum also asked Buhari to overhaul his government.

The PDP national chairman argued that protesters had the constitutional right to protest.

According to him, despite the dissolution of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) by police authorities, which was right, the introduction of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) had not settled well with the people.

He said: “We wish to state unequivocally that the President has the honourable option in the face of the glaring incompetence in governance to declare a national emergency in the nation’s security architecture.

“We also request for the immediate setting up of an independent judicial panel to look into the handling of this peaceful protest especially as it relates to the role of security agencies.”

Secondus continued: “They (youths) have been carrying out this constitutional obligation peacefully across the country without any molestation and registering their grievances appropriately to relevant authorities.

“The Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu swiftly responded to the youth outcry by disbanding the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad, 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.

“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 Nigerian Army opened fire on protesting youths killing and maiming several of them.”

The PDP, he affirmed, “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.”

He urged the youths to be peaceful and called on the government to learn from history.

He maintained, “rather than emulate legitimate responses of civilised leaders to protests of this nature across the democratic nations globally, Nigeria government prefers the ignominious option of the 1989 Tiananmen Square in China that ended with military crackdown that became known in history as the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“A government that should be concerned about national security has also dangerously gone ahead to encourage violence by deploying troops against protesting citizens.

“As the main opposition party who has carefully watched this development, PDP views the dimension the federal government is directing the protest as unfortunate and dangerous to national cohesion and peace.

“As the needless bloodletting rages, our President, the Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari has continued to keep mum behaving exactly like Nero who played fiddle while Rome burned.”