The Department of Church and Society (DCS) of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Abuja has called for the urgent interventions of elder statesmen and parents to prevent anarchy over the ongoing #EndSARS in the country.
The National Director, Department of Church and Society Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja, Dr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, made the appeal on Tuesday in Abuja at a news conference.
According to him, it is in the interest of the nation that the elders of the country intervene now and also for the parents to come in as their children are out in the street protesting and also dying.
He noted that the early hours of Sunday October 4th 2020, saw the Nigerian Youths at the streets of some of the nation’s major cities, beginning in Ughelli in Delta state, in a peace protest, against the increasing police brutality and extra-judicial killing of Nigerian Youths by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police Force, which has now been disbanded.
Obodoechina said that the trigger was the brutal death of a young man in Ughelli Delta state by this Squad.
“Hitherto, the Nigerian Youths have often been deprived, extorted, abused and even maimed by the same Squad at the slightest provocations. It is on record that at least 18 persons were killed by SARS without trial in the first quarter of 2020 alone. This did not account for hundreds that were harassed, tortured, and extorted. Hence the protest to exact positive transformation’ both in the police and the entire structures of governance in Nigeria.
“But the root of the protest went deeper. The Nigerian Youth along with the rest of the Nigerian citizens are living witnesses to situations of poverty, and disease, exacerbated by infrastructural decay, ruined healthcare systems, endemic insecurity and a tenuous social life,” he added.
The organization recommended that the Federal Government should urgently empanel a committee of elder statesmen, well-meaning opinion leaders, civil society groups along with the youths to redefine the rules of engagement and proffer solutions to the spiraling protests.
“It would be mutually self-destructive for the Government, overtly or covertly to try to arm-twist the protesters with intimidations and the use of either the Army or the Police. In whichever way, the use of force, or the operation of the Exercise Crocodile Smile’ would exacerbate the feud in an already toxic and volatile environment. The protesting youth deserve to be listened to and taken very seriously,” the Catholic cleric said.
He therefore called for a holistic reform of the Nigerian Police Force, the entire security architecture in the country and the diverse structures of governance to reflect true structures of service for fullness of life for all Nigerians.
