The presidency has declared that all those who promoted the #EndSARS protests that was eventually hijacked by hoodlums to cause mayhem in the country recently, must be made to face the wrath of the law.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, made the point on Sunday night while answering questions on ‘Politics Today’, a programme of Channels Television.
This is even while government has set up panels to hear out the grievances of the young protesters, although some of them are also ironically being hounded by government’s security and financial institutions.
One of them, Modupe Odele, was prevented from travelling last week and had her passport seized by the Nigeria Immigration Service, while Bolatito Olorunrinu and Temitope Majekodunmi, pulled out of the commission of inquiry set up by the Lagos State Government, because the Central Bank of Nigeria froze the accounts of some of the #EndSARS promoters.
Nonetheless, Shehu maintained that “this country has only one president and has only one constitution. President Muhammadu Buhari is responsible for his government. The buck stops on his table.
“We are a country governed by law. There is a constitution —under section 33— that clearly defines the rights of citizens to freely protest in a peaceful way but where a peaceful protest turns into riot, violence and looting, there is a law and order duty to be performed.
“Everyone witnessed the massive looting of public and private properties particularly in Lagos, Calabar, Plateau, Taraba and some other states, even the FCT.
“Now, the laws of the country must be allowed to decide, to rule on wrongdoing on the part of anybody.
“I am not particular about any celebrity or promoter but this country has been harmed enormously and people should be prepared to account for what they did.”
