From Lucky Barth, Abuja
Minutes after holding a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday, President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, have appealed to youths to end their protest against police brutality since the government has acceded to their major request, which is to scrap the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. Other requests, they both maintained, are policy issues that would take time for implementation.
According to Lawan, “the protest have been made and the issues raised accepted and time has come for the protest to stop. Government needs to take sufficient time to treat the demands.”
He said the the resort to road closure by the protesters would hurt the economy. “We need to have the economy to go on. Closing roads to markets and economic places will destroy the economy. If the issues gave have not been accepted the they can go on. The trust of the protest was that SARS should end and the President has done so. Other issues are been addressed. I also believe that other Nigerians have legitimate rights to go about their businesses. We do not want a degeneration of the protest into disorder.”
In his reaction, Gbajabiamila said,”Policy issues cannot be done overnight. I have heard it said we have ended SARS four time before. But this is the first time we have heard Mr President made a pronouncement banning SARS. So let them tarry a little while. If nothing happens in two weeks, then they can start off . Of course there are tangential issue. But many are policy issues that cannot be solved overnight.”
