Senate President Godswill Akpabio has accused the candidates who lost out in the 2023 presidential election of sponsoring the planned nationwide protest.
Mr Akpabio spoke on Monday at the State House, Abuja, after he witnessed President Bola Tinubu’s signing of the new minimum wage bill into law.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress (AAC) and others ran against President Tinubu in the election.
Some individuals and organisations in the country have planned a nationwide protest over the hardship occasioned by the economic policies of the Tinubu administration. The protest will be held between August 1 and August 10. The senate president, however, said those who lost the election thought they could use the protest to claim the mandate through the back door.
People who probably do not have their fortunes in the 2023 election are thinking they can come through the back door, and that will amount to anarchy,” Mr Akpabio said. He cautioned the intended protesters to ignore damaging properties. “Any destruction of any property will cost Nigeria money. We don’t have the money. Instead, let’s put the money into developing you and developing your environs instead of going to rebuild”.
Mr Akpabio also raised the alarm that some people are planning to use the protest to loot properties and commit other atrocities.So I want to use this opportunity to call on those who are attempting to foment trouble; that you have a right to protest. It is your fundamental right. It is there in the constitution. But you don’t have a right to destabilise the country. The right to protest should not be turned into the right to unleash v+olence. It’s very clear that people who are behind this are very amorphous, very faceless. So what it means is that people are preparing to loot and go round and do all sorts of things,” he added.
