Fear Of Protests Behind FG’s Clampdown On Opposition Voices –Sources

For the Federal Government, once beaten twice shy, holds true as the government at the centre, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt would not allow any general protest again in whatever guise like it happened last month, when protesters took over some parts of the country and were demanding for a regime change.

It would be recalled that Kano, Yobe, Borno, Kaduna and Niger states became the epicentre of violence last month, when protesters in the guise of #Endbadgovernance, protesting the economic hardship of the President Bola Tinubu administration almost overran some Government Houses as they looted and vandalized government and state infrastructure.

For this, some alleged suspects are currently being prosecuted. They were in Court last week.

The Court granted them bail but with strict conditions. Many have argued that the Federal Government was stifling opposition and all who may oppose its economic and political policies.

On the other hand, the Federal Government said they are being used by the opposition to destabilise the government, something it says it would not condone.

Tinubu on the other hand was quoted to have said that the law would take its course as no one is above the law; anyone whom the security agencies see as going against the law can be called in for questioning.

Just last Monday, the nation woke up to the news that the Department of State Services (DSS) had arrested the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Joe Ajaero and invaded the Abuja office of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

A post on SERAP’s X (Twitter) handle read: “Officers from Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS) are presently unlawfully occupying SERAP’s office in Abuja, asking to see our directors.

“President Tinubu must immediately direct the SSS to end the harassment, intimidation, and attack on the rights of Nigerians.” SERAP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, legal and advocacy organization, devoted to promoting transparency, accountability and respect for socioeconomic rights in Nigeria.

The organization had barely 24 hours previously, urged President Bola Tinubu to leverage his leadership and authority to instruct the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to promptly reverse the seemingly illegal and unconstitutional hike in the pump price of petrol at its retail outlets.

Those who should know, said that the clampdown on voices of dissent was a ploy by the Federal Government to buy time and not allow the kind of protest the nation witnessed in August. One of the

Sources said: “What the government is doing is trying to ensure that there is no concerted effort to galvanise any general protest on account of some of its policies.

“That is why it is doing what it is doing. It is also part of their game plan to ensure that they buy time while they think that some of their economic policies were being tinkered with and would begin to yield fruits. They are trying to buy time with what they are doing.

“It is also a strategy to give a dog a bad name to hang it. The target is on some of those who are supposed to lead the protest – That is what the opposition is saying, including the PDP.

The government is using strong-arm tactics to cow the opposition, to cow the civil society for people not to have the freedom to express themselves over some of the hash economic policies being unleashed on the Nigerian society.”

In a reaction, a civil society group, RULAAC, has called on President Tinubu to stop what it called clamp down on dissent and prioritize human rights. In a statement by Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, RULAAC said: “President Tinubu’s thick skin over growing concerns about

Source: New Telegraph