The North Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has warned against plans by some groups and individuals to organise a nationwide protest against the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The forum said such decision would be counterproductive and harmful to the progress of the country at this moment, calling on the organisers to have a rethink and retrace their steps.
The forum’s Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Mandung Zazzaga, who addressed newsmen on Monday in Jos, the Plateau State capital, said those calling for the protest ought to observe the situation in the country and have a sound judgment before taking any decision.
Zazzaga said President Tinubu was trying his best to reposition the country on the path of growth, urging Nigerians to support him, rather than distract the administration in the name of any protest.
He said those calling for the protest were not doing so for the love and progress of the country, but for their own selfish reasons and to score cheap political points, adding that many of them were being sponsored by enemies of the country and the government.
Meanwhile, the chairman strongly sent a note of warning to the protesters not to contemplate staging the protest in the North Central region because of the challenges currently bedeviling the region.
According to him, the region, and the North generally, is going through security challenges which the president is trying tirelessly to solve.
He said, “Therefore any protest in the region can be highjacked by hoodlums to cause mayhem and threaten lives and properties of law-abiding citizens.
“The issue of kidnappings, banditry and other criminal activities the region is going through over the years is already overwhelming on the region, and it cannot afford to have another restiveness added to it.
“Besides, protests in parts of the region and the North often take ethno-religious dimension which also culminated into killings of one another between Christians and Muslims.
“Example of such a protest which often turns violent and takes an ethno-religious crisis is that of the #EndSARS protest across the country which took such dimension in Jos, the Plateau State capital, and we have to do a lot to tame it.
“I, alongside other eminent persons in Jos, went around calming the people down to stop the violence, and we ensured that Christians were protected in Muslim areas, and vice versa, and thereafter handed those protected from harm over to the police to unite them with their families safely.
“So, I call on all our members across the region to mobilise vigorously and campaign against any form of protest in the region, and I also urge the governors, religious leaders, traditional rulers and other eminent personalities and opinion leaders in the North Central region to call all their wards to order and advise them against participating in any form of protest due to the peculiar situation of our region.”
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