New Telegraph

#EndSARS: Bakare backs protesters, seeks lasting solution

Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Church International formerly known as Latter Rain Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has described the #EndSARS protests across some states in the country as a wholesale rejection of the barrage of needless frustrations and degradations that define the Nigerian experience.

 

Speaking yesterday during a special briefing to address the #EndSARS protest in his church, Bakare condemned any status quo where citizens become disposable or the right to life becomes negotiable.

 

Bakare, who was the 2011 presidential running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari, said he appreciates the need to find a delicate balance between curbing the spate of armed robbery as an occupation and acceding to the specific requests of protesters who have justifiably reached a saturation point.

 

He said: “It is with a heavy heart I have followed the #EndSARS protests, as young and older Nigerians from various walks of life, across the length and breadth of the nation and the diaspora, are united in rejecting harassment, humiliation and the coldblooded murder of their fellow citizens. “I recognise this movement for what it is: a wholesale rejection of the barrage of needless frustrations and degradations that define the Nigerian experience.

 

There is a threshold of decency below which no human being must fall, and I reject any status quo where citizens become disposable or the right to life becomes negotiable. “I applaud the resilience of protesters in the face of yet more reckless cruelty, and I am increasingly confident that this generation will succeed where mine has failed.”

 

Commending the comments and efforts of the presidency, state governments, the national and state assemblies and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), he called for the need to find a delicate balance between curbing the spate of armed robbery as an occupation and acceding to the specific requests of protesters who have justifiably reached a saturation point.

 

“You simply cannot police a people without their cooperation and you cannot obtain the cooperation of the people for a tactical unit they no longer trust. In the short-term, we must find a balance between retaining the anti-robbery intention  and re-evaluating the identity of the vehicle by first expelling and prosecuting the criminal elements among the rank and file and the leadership.

 

“This is non-negotiable. We must Re-evaluate, Restructure, Rebrand and Rebuild Confidence in an efficient and effective antirobbery tactical unit even as we work towards a more holistic and fundamental re-conception of our security architecture on the journey to national rebirth. “I enjoin every aggrieved citizen to continue to find peaceful means to air discontents until we arrive at a version of Nigeria we can all be proud of.

 

May the souls of the departed rest in peace, and may the living forge a nation worthy of the resounding courage of the young men and women of the #EndSARS movement,” Bakare said.

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