An Elder Statesman and former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah has described the event of EndSars in Nigeria as nor ethnic, religious and sectional, but national. Stating, “Public resentment to police brutality, particularly SARS, is not a sudden thing, it has been building up”. That was why the Federal government of Nigeria set up in 2018, a presidential panel on SARS reforms, which panel recommended the sacking of 37 police officers, and the prosecution of 24 others as well as unravel the identity of 22 officers involved in the violation of human rights of innocent citizens upon which no effect was given to the panel’s report.
The former governor in a press briefing urged the youths “to rally in strong defence of their inheritance and to be totally united in their condemnation of all manner of unethical behaviour and hooliganism that can lead to the destruction of personal and public property.”
The Elder Statesman observed that during the Covid 19 lockdown, the atrocities of the SARS increased, voices of protests got strident but the Nigerian authorities turned a deaf ear and the impunities multiplied. “Our youths were not shot and killed for seeking a change in the social order; for seeking a better future for themselves which we, the elders have denied them. The youths are our future why must we deliberately set out to destroy our own future!”
He appealed to the youths to eschew bitterness and to show further commitment to the peace process by halting all further protests so they will not be accused of participating in the destruction of their own future. “…there is no doubt that their primary purpose of EndSARS has been realized though at a heavy price. The healing process must now begin.”
