The Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to dialogue with planned protesters to address their concerns.
Speaking to journalists, Chairman of the caucus, Rep. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) stated that, the call was part of the caucus’ resolution after their dinner held in Abuja on Monday.
He added that the call was to find ways to halt the planned protest especially against the background of insecurity in parts of the country.
He said, “We also appealed to the government to dialogue with the planned protesters and also look at some of the messages they are raising, the critical areas that need government intervention. Government should intervene and ensure that issues are resolved amicably.
“We are not going to encourage any protesters because in the past we have observed in most cases that even peaceful protests have been overtaken by hoodlums and with the insecurity situation in some parts of the country, you may not have the control of the gathering of people. So some unscrupulous people may use the opportunity to create chaos.
“So we are discouraging any protest but we appeal to government to dialogue and also look at critical areas that are necessary and address them amicably”.
He therefore called on the federal government to use dialogue and other means to address the insecurity and economic challenges facing the country.
He said, “We acknowledge and observe the insecurity situation in the country and we call on the government to use carrot and stick by letting the result be seen. Let all the security chiefs do what is right to ensure that Nigerians are protected.
“We also acknowledged in our discussion that there is hunger in the land and we appeal to the government not only to be giving palliatives but to create ways and means whereby people can be self-reliant.
“Basically the main purpose of our gathering was just end of year dinner. We feel it is important to organise a dinner and thank all our members for giving us the necessary support, all the minority parties in the House”.
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