Occupy Nigeria protest didn’t turn violent because Jonathan didn’t approve use of force: Ex-SSS director

“No matter how good their intentions are, I believe this protest will be hijacked eventually.’’

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An ex-director of the State Security Services, Mike Ejiofor, has said 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests did not turn violent because the then president Goodluck Jonathan did not approve the use of force.

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Mr Ejifor, who appeared as a guest on Friday’s Arise TV Morning Show, explained this while discussing the planned protest against economic hardship slated for between August 1 and August 10.

According to Mr Ejifor, how a protest turns out depends on how the present government reacts to such protest, He stated that the 2012 protest did not turn violent because of Mr Jonathan’s body language, explaining that the country’s situation in 2012 was not as bad as now.

He noted that though the citizens might have good intentions with the protest and within the right to do so, the protest would eventually be hijacked and as a result he would continue to plead with the organisers to shelve it.

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Mr Ejifor added that they were afraid that the protest would be hijacked because while some people were against the government and decided to protest, others who were in support of the government for their own personal interest and not because of national interest may represent their own interest which may cause violence during the protest.

Mr Ejifor said, “The 2012 protest didn’t turn violent, one, because of the body language of the sitting president then. He allowed everything to go and the situation was not as bad as what we have now. Now, it can be exploited because people are hungry, desperate and want to use anything to vent their anger. It is their legitimate right to protest as enshrined in the constitution. But I think they (organisers of protest) did us a lot of good by giving sufficient notice to the government of their intentions to go on protest and you can see the grounds of appeals from various stakeholders and interest groups appealing to them to shelve the plan.

“No matter how good their intentions are, I believe this protest will be hijacked eventually. Looking at their demands, we will all agree that there is economic hardship in the country, there is hunger and anger in the land, but again people who are more hungry now will explore the opportunity to loot people’s shops and it will eventually turn violent and that’s why we will continue to appeal to the organisers to shelve the plans and give government time to look at it. Some people might tell you that this APC government is not doing well, others will tell you that this is the best government.”

Mr Ejifor further said that nobody said youths should not protest but if they protest and it turns violent, the government has the statutory mandate of protecting the state and the innocent citizens.

“The point remains that people have the right to protest as long as it doesn’t turn violent. The ordinary man in the street also needs to know what is happening because some people do not even have electricity to look at the nation to know what is going on. I think the president needs to directly speak to the people, maybe make a national broadcast, this will help in relaxing the situation.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the military warned that it would not allow any form of violence during the planned protest, stating that it uncovered schemes by dishonest people to hijack the protest and incite violence against defenceless Nigerians and establishments.