*Allegations against me untrue – Ex-Lagos Governor
*Accused of taking Yoruba race to anti-Nigeria status
Two weeks after #ENDSARS protests, despite demands all granted by President Muhammadu Buhari, have continued to paralise social and economic activities in Southern part of the country mainly West and Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the National Leader of the party in power, All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Monday asked the protesters to end it saying they have made their point.
Tinubu’s intervention was coming after the National President, Miyetti Allah KautalHore Fulani Socio-cultural Association, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, made a press statement in Abuja where he exposed him as the sole financier of the extended #ENDSARS protests aiming to overthrow the government of his own party because he realized his 2023 presidential ambition would no longer be possible.
The former Lagos State governor has been accused in the past of imposition of candidates, working against his party and being satisfied with punishing other members of the APC for similar anti-party activities he is guilty of but always getting off untouched.
The trouble with the Lagos strong politician swelled Monday when some concerned citizens, believed to be sympathetic with President Buhari, urged the President to now rise to the challenge of investigating all allegations against him as one of them said, “Hardly have I seen anybody who is bold and sincere enough to tell President Buhari that it is because of Tinubu’s impropriety around him that sacked corrupt politicians who should not speak near the President are running their mouths on him. By his attitude, we see him more as taking Yoruba race, major beneficiary of Buhari’s government, to earning the anti-Nigeria status as his supporters in the South West now see his ambition as determinant for secession thinking they are attacking the North. Very dangerous!”
But on Monday, Tinubu, who denied the ‘very serious’ allegations by the Miyetti Allah by mere simple means of press release, intervened in the ongoing activities of protests, believed by many to be using opportunity created by legitimate resistance to age-long brutality and other atrocities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), to cause confusion and garner international community support to overthrow democratically elected President Muhammadu Buhari.
He urged the protesters to calm down and end the demonstrations through which two governors of Osun and Ekiti, Alhaji Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola and Dr. Kayode Fayemi, respective, had escaped death by the whiskers and many lives lost and properties destroyed in Lagos, Abuja, Edo and Osun states, with particular jail break on Sapele Road, Benin City, leading the swift imposition of 24-hour curfew by the Government of Edo State on Monday.
Tinubu said, “You have made your point. Government has made a commitment to you. Please, please and please, call off the protests,” he appealed to the protesters in a statement, adding: “Give the government a chance to implement your demands.”
He urged the youths to end the protests since President MuhammaduBuhari has acted with commendable dispatch by not only scrapping the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) but also accepting the five-point demand that triggered the protests.
The former Lagos State governor noted that the protesters have made considerable gains within a very short period, urging them to be careful not to fritter away such gains due to lack of moderation and strategic thinking.
He said: “For instance, it is unfortunate that hoodlums, thugs and assorted criminals have seized on the protests to perpetrate violence, disrupt civil life and harass, intimidate and assault innocent persons going about their lawful business.
“The intent of the organisers of the protests is to achieve stated objectives on police reform, which the government has in principle accepted. It can certainly not be their motive to cause generalised anarchy or effect regime change. If they give the impression that that is their goal, then any government will necessarily have to act with the requisite decisiveness and force to restore law and order and preserve constitutional rule.”
Tinubu added that the vigour and vibrancy of the protests were an indication of the growing strength of the democratic culture in Nigeria.
He urged the protesters to be careful not to set the stage for the erosion or destruction of the same democratic process that gives them the freedom and right to protest in the first place.
He praised religious leaders for what he called their sense of patriotism and urged them to prevail on their teeming followers to call off the protests for now and give peace a chance.
Saying the protests have forcefully demonstrated the reality and potency of people’s power, he pleaded that the new energy must be tapped and channeled to strengthen, not weaken the country’s democracy.
“Surely, the country cannot remain the same after this,” Tinubu said, adding: “The government has demonstrated its sensitivity to the demands of the youth and must now be supported to implement the reforms it has committed itself to.”
He said it was a good sign that Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and a number of other state governors had speedily set up judicial panels of inquiry into acts of police brutality over the years and urged other state governors that are yet to do so to emulate Sanwo-Olu’s example.
“This process of change should be supported and this cannot be done in an atmosphere of endless protests that are also crippling an economy already enfeebled by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
