Planned Protest: Wike Dialogue With Stakeholders For Peace

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike has
organised a town hall meeting with strategic stakeholders on the need for the residents not to join the planned nationwide protest but to sustain peace in Abuja.

Speaking at the town hall meeting over the weekend, the minister told FCT residents to toe the path of dialogue to present their case rather than joining the protest.

The Minister said protests would not solve any problem but would rather create an opportunity for hooligans to take advantage of the situation to foment trouble.

He warned that the FCT Administration will not allow any protest from faceless protesters, geared towards destruction or to overthrow the government .

Wike acknowledged that FCT residents have the constitutional right to protest, but cautioned that such protests must be done within the ambit of the law.

“Protests do not solve any problem. Protests rather create more problems because hooligans, hoodlums would always want to take advantage to foment problems and create crises”.

Reacting to the purported written requests for permission to protest at the Eagle Square in the FCT, the Minister said he only heard about the request on social media.

He said any request to protest in the FCT must be addressed to his office, adding that certain conditions must also be fulfilled before the requests are granted.

“Who are these people who want to protest? I’m just reading on social media that they’ve applied to me to grant the Eagle Square. Do you apply to me through social media? You will write a letter to the minister. Who are you? I will see you. What do you want to do? How many days do you want to spend? How much will you pay?

“When people want to do propaganda in everything; I watched them on Channels News telling the IG I have applied. You don’t apply to me through Channels. You must apply properly. You must pay what they call security cost so that if there is any damage with the facilities, we take that security cost and repair”.

“We don’t just give people just because you have applied. You will fulfil the condition”.

Remi Johnson, Edited By Grace Namiji