Youths Suspend #EndSARS Protests In Osun Due To Hijack By ‘Kleptomaniacs’

Osun youths agitating against police brutality and bad governance have announced the suspension of #EndSARS protests in the state.

The youths announced this in a statement on Tuesday following the violence and looting of government and private properties by some hoodlums.

The statement was signed by Ige Oluwasegun Ebenezer; Ayo Oloogun; Ismail Abdulazeez and Adebisi Oluwasun Emanuel.

The youths said it had become imperative to suspend street protest to allow government and security agents to restore law and order in the state as the state had imposed 24-hour curfew to achieve this.

The youths said anybody who had been brutalised or maltreated in anyway should feel free to approach the panel of inquiry set up by the state government lodge their complaints.

The statement read, “We greatly appreciate the doggedness and resilience of the teeming youths in the State of Osun, for showcasing genuine concerns for nation-building and just society, by joining their comrades across the country to agitate for end to police brutality and brigandage.

“The patriotic commitment and stance of our youths against brutal force and unlawful activities of the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad(SARS) remain unforgettable and exemplary, it is indeed a watershed in the annals of our dear country.

“Unfortunately, in the course of our genuine struggle for the emancipation of the weak and downtrodden, and for better society of our desire, some unscrupulous elements with divisive tendencies sneaked into the barricade and disrupted our procession.

“The most disheartening and pathetic of this rude obstruction of our movement to the point of egalitarianism was the kleptomaniac tendencies of these individuals, who used our popular struggle as a cover to steal, maim, and vandalise our common patrimony.

“We were astonished and utterly saddened with the criminal manner these elements went about looting both public and private properties and almost turned the state to the arena of anarchy and turmoil, before the swift intervention of the state government.

“Going forward therefore, as we implicitly comply with 24-hour curfew imposed on the state by the government, for the ultimate goal of returning sanity and peace into the state, we hereby use this medium to notify our teeming youths that every agitation and protest has been put on hold.

“We enjoin our comrades to avoid any form of public gathering in respect of #EndSARS and to uphold the collective suspension of protest as earlier agreed to allow government in the State of Osun to carry out necessary steps towards meeting array of our demands, especially the five-point demand as endorsed by the Federal Government.”

The youths added that anybody caught on the streets doing otherwise under the guise of #EndSARS protest would be made to face the full wrath of the law.