The planned protest against the current challenges and bad governance has been criticised by the chairpersons of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as an attempt to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The purpose of the protests, which are scheduled to take place from August 1 to August 10, is to raise awareness of problems like the nation’s economic crisis, starvation, suffering, and poor governance.
But on Monday, at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, Alphonsus Ogar Eba, the APC chairman of the Cross River State chapter and Secretary of the APC States Chairmen Forum, along with his colleagues, declared that they would not stand by while “undemocratic forces” attempted to overthrow President Tinubu’s administration under the guise of protest.
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The chairpersons said that from July 29 to August 11, 2024, all tiers of the party hierarchy—from wards to the national level—would be mobilised to “reaffirm the positive projects and programs of President Tinubu” and cautioned that any violent protests would be futile.
The Secretary said, “As the ruling party, we are prepared to meet every contestant in 2027 but we will not fold our arms and allow undemocratic forces to topple the government we worked so hard to elect into office. That will be a disservice to the good people of Nigeria who freely gave us this mandate.
“We call on all patriotic Nigerians to resist any attempt by any one or any group of persons to intimidate them into unorganised protest likely to endanger the peace we currently enjoy as a nation. We call on patriots to join forces with security agencies to report any criminal element who attempt to carry out any act of violence.
“Against this background, in the next two weeks commencing from today 29th July to 11th August 2024 and from this press briefing, which shall follow with a solidarity rally by all structures of our party across all political wards, LGAs and states capital including Abuja FCT, we shall embark on peaceful rally to re echo the laudable projects and the programmes of President Tinubu with greater vigor to protect and defend our democracy from any attack by hoodlums or some criminal elements who wants to carry out violent protest.
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“All our party men and concerned Nigerian in other political parties, are enjoined to stand firm in protection of democracy. It should be noted that violent protest being contemplated by the faceless group as contained in their charter of demand will annihilate the democratic ideals which all political parties subscribed to.
“This is unacceptable and we must resist it in the most civil manner by sensitising innocent and peace loving people of our country about the plans of failed politicians who want to get power through every illegitimate means by inciting ignorant Nigerians to embark on violent protest.
“Protest is a constitutional right when done through the rule of law. However, security reports have shown that it is counterproductive to embark on this protest this time as there are sinister arrangements by some unpatriotic persons to hijack the protest for the sole purpose of unleashing nefarious agenda to perpetrate violence and indulge in high level criminality reminiscent of the 2020 Endsars protest and the recent experience in Kenya.
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“It is our humble view that this will worsen our already challenging socio economic situation and that is why we have decided to join our voices to make this appeal to all Nigerians.”
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