APC condemns attack on 'bring back our girls' protesters
(Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress, APC, has condemned the attack
by apparently-sponsored thugs against the 'bring back our girls' protesters who
have hitherto conducted themselves in a civil and peaceful manner, calling the
attack deplorable and definitely orchestrated to shift the focus from 'bring
back our girls' to 'release our girls'.
APC in a statement in Lagos on Thursday by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the attack on the
protesters in Abuja has confirmed its worst fears that the federal government
was embarking on a campaign to shift the responsibility from the government to
the abductors, in line with President Goodluck Jonathan's admonition to the
protesters to direct their protests at the abductors rather than to his
government.
The party wondered why the government would be pushing its
responsibility to ensure the welfare and security of Nigerians to a band of
terrorists.
''When we said this federal government has abdicated its
responsibility to Nigerians, the government's apologists twisted that statement
of fact to mean that we are insulting the President. Well, what does one make
of a government that has now rented a crowd of delinquents to attack the 'bring
back our girls' protesters and counter their message?
''Nigerians voted for Goodluck Jonathan as President, and
not for the terrorist called Abubakar Shekau. It is therefore right for them to
demand action to return the girls safely from their President, rather than from
the anarchist, Shekau,'' it said.
APC said the fact that the 'release our girls Boko Haram'
hooligans who invaded the Unity Fountain gathering of the 'bring back our
girls' protesters came in SURE-P buses and were not restrained by the police,
even when letters have been written to the security agency alerting it to such
attack, has shown that they enjoy some protection from the authorities and are
being sponsored to harass the decent and focused protesters who have helped
call global attention to the plight of the innocent girls.
''This obnoxious campaign to shift the responsibility for
the safety and security of the girls from the government to the terrorists
started with the sponsored protests to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja and
has continued with the depressing attacks on a women-led group by a band of
paid ruffians.
''Worst still, a government that so far has proven to be
clueless and incompetent in ensuring the safe return of the girls has now
resorted to wasting taxpayers money to rent a crowd of scallywags to assault
innocent Nigerians, who are mostly women, and distort the image of the
highly-responsible 'bring back our girls' protesters.
''While every group, no matter its sponsors and objectives,
is free to exercise the constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of
assembly and association, no group has a right to attack the other for whatever
reason,'' the party said.
It urged the government to focus its energy on how to bring
back the girls safely, more than one-and-a-half months into their abduction,
warning that the entire people of Nigeria as well as the international
community will definitely frown at the government's new and odious tactics to
muddle the waters.
''President Jonathan must immediately and publicly condemn
the sponsored attack on the peaceful protesters and order the police to provide
round-the-clock security for them, failing which it will be safe to assume that
the attackers have his blessings,'' APC said.
The party hailed the 'bring back our girls' protesters for
their peaceful and civil conduct even in the face of incredible provocation
that they have had to endure, and urge them to continue their protests in that
spirit.
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