Former Niger Delta militant and Mayor of Urhoboland, who is one of the major critics of the protest, Eshanekpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to address Nigerians to end the national protest themed: #endbadgovernance (Hunger Protest), in the country.
Akpodoro argued that a national broadcast by President Tinubu will douse the tension and the reign of criminalities, stating that the President directly talking to Nigerians could placate the protesters to stop the “embarrassing rampage against the current administration and restore normalcy in the country.”
Akpodoro described the protest as a distraction to the President as he called on those he called ‘fifth columnists to allow the President deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of Nigeria who overwhelmingly voted for on February 25, 2023.”
The Urhobo-born Mayor also called on the President to immediately arrest the sponsors of the protest in Kano, Kaduna, Borno and other States where the supposed peaceful protest culminated into violence occasioned by looting of both private, public properties and loss of lives.
He noted that the fears of the government and well-meaning Nigerians who appealed again the “tendentious and premeditated reign of terror innocent by hoodlums” have been confirmed in the ugly incidences recorded across the States, save for few.
Akpodoro spoke in Abuja on the sidelines of a stakeholders meeting held at his instance to review developments arising from the “unwarranted civil disobedience,” saying that it is now clear that the sponsors of the #endbadgovernance protest have the sinister motives including but not limited to throwing Nigeria into anarchy for them to achieve their aims tucked in the protest.
According to the Urhobo-born former warlord, the sponsors of the protest are unpatriotic elements who are hell-bent on undermining democracy in the country. He stressed that nations all over the world are experiencing economic meltdown stating that the hardship arising from the reformative administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not peculiar to Nigeria.
He restated his earlier position that politicians who are bad losers are the enablers of the riotous situations in the country and they a full blown anarchy to enable gloath and blackmail the current administration adding that security apparatus should rise to the occasion and end the premeditated rage in the country.
President Tinubu’s administration has set the nation on the path economic recovery, Akpodoro said as he further reiterated the need to embrace dialogue in national interest and solidarity saying, the protest is an ill wind that will blow no one any good.
He bemoaned the killings in Niger State, Kano, and other states where he said criminal elements took advantage of the protest.
“Roads were blocked and bornfires made in major cities all in their bid to provoke reactions from the security agencies. The protest has been criminalised as hoodlums, street urchins filed out in their numbers to loot government and private properties needlessly…”
Originally published in The Nation