Drawing from the lessons of the #EndSARS protest, the Oyo State Government, on Thursday, convened a meeting of security agencies, park managers, local government chairmen, market leaders and other stakeholders to ensure the forthcoming nationwide protest is conducted within constitutional provisions.
The meeting coordinated by the Special Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Security, Fatai Owoseni aimed at having stakeholders sensitise their members and general members of the public on the August 1-10 protest again assuming the #EndSARS dimension of violence, looting, arson and killing.
Setting the tone of the meeting, Owoseni said the state would not want a protest where people are restricted from going about their legitimate businesses.
He said acts of stealing, looting, destroying properties, carrying arms, and disrupting the flow of human and vehicular, under the guise of protesting, were tantamount to criminality and abuse of people’s fundamental human rights.
Owoseni said security agencies had been given the wherewithal to collaborate strategically to ensure protests are peaceful, adding that the state would not lose its guards such that it becomes the epicentre of the protest.
Speaking, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ayo Sonubi said security agencies would cooperate with the protesters and ensure the protest is not hijacked by hoodlums to foist violence.
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Sonubi said security agencies had embarked on joint patrol, as he added that there would be strategic deployment of security personnel at major junctions in the state.
Represented by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Adejobi Akinade, the Oyo police commissioner said the police had identified possible hotbeds of violent protest and has strategised to ensure that lives and properties are protected.
Also speaking, Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State, Mr Sikiru Sanda said while people had right to show their grievances through protest, he said the local government chairmen were for peaceful assemblies, protests.
Other local government chairmen, who spoke, stressed the need for security personnel to be professional in handling the protest just as they enjoined traditional rulers, community leaders, school heads, and religious leaders to speak to their people on the imperativeness of the protest being peaceful.
On his part, Babaloja General of Oyo State, Alhaji Yekeen Abass said the market leadership has set up a market taskforce and spoken to traders to caution their wards, and children to be peaceful in their participation in the protest.
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