By Amarachi Onyemma, News/Comments
A former Assistant Director, Department of State Services, (DSS), Mr. Dennis Amachree, MON, has applauded security agencies in managing the nationwide protests against hunger and bad governance which started on August 1.
He noted that the Security of protesters is guarantee in the 1999 Constitution as long protesters do not go violent. The Security Expert who spoke on TVC early morning of yesterday, stressed, that the protests would have been avoided if proactive measures were taken, citing the hijacking of the process by hooligans and mafias’.
The Former DSS Boss said, he had earlier advised, if the protest must hold, the police should give very close marking to the protesters so that some people don’t hijack the process.
“You can see what has happened in Kano and some parts of the Northern states where some persons were flying the Russian flags. In fact, looking at it again, you find out that such flags were not Russia, because of the horizontal and the way the tailor had sewed it, and if they are shouting for Russia to come or the military should come, then of course, subversion has taken place and subversion is treasonable.”
He stressed that, the making of flags in Kano undermines the sovereignty of Nigeria. If someone tries to fly a foreign flag in a foreign country, you may call it subversion also. The only place you can fly a foreign flag is in the embassy of all the countries but not in protests .
He however added:
“I think we are having more serious implications than what is happening right now, because when we look at why this is happening, you will come to think that Niger Republic, Burkina Faso and Mali where Russia is trying to get a foot-hold, our neighbors, and remember where we have the Wagner group also on a standby. We all heard what the leader of Mali said once, that they will run into Nigeria and you cannot say that these people are in ECOWAS or let us do palliatives and pull them down. This is a foreign army that is mounting their armaments and personnel at our borders. In fact, if I have to advice the President, I will tell him to close the borders to these areas, because you never know these people may be having sympathy with Russia or possible intentions or possibly trying to get to Nigeria one way or the other and remember that they are not our direct friends. We are not having any problem with Russia but they see us as a more western allied country. And these are things that we have to check.”
The DSS, boss however, reiterated why government needs to understand that not all protests are bad and government should not be scared of protest. “ Protest is like a safety van for the people to air their own frustration to government, it’s like when you are cooking with a pressure cooker, if the thing gets too hot, there is a button that will release the heat and that is what protest does to a country and that way, government should be able to collect enough intelligence for what is happening or how the people want their country to be run.”
“One thing we have to understand is that, Nigeria is practicing democracy, and if that is the case, sometimes, the people want their voices to be heard and it is the responsibility of the government to listen or not. “
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