The Coalition of Civil Societies and Pressure Groups in Nigeria (COCSPG), has called on all well-meaning Nigerians to rise up against sponsored intimidation and persecution by politicians and government in terrorizing their elected representatives at the National Assembly.
This was outcome of the youth protest witnessed at the National Assembly on Tuesday, 26th April 2016.
Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, on 27th April, 2016, with the theme: Say no to Executive Impunity”, Ambassador for Peace, Amb. Phil Roberts, disclosed that yesterday, a series of worrying events that had been brewing for months since the inception of this new administration became full blown when a selected group of Nigerians under the sponsorship of politicians and government bodies, descended at the National Assembly to take the laws unto themselves in the full view of the Nigeria’s security agencies by freely intimidating, harassing and attacking Nigerians in their quest to cow everyone into doing the sponsored bidding for their masters.
He reiterated that, the group are operating under the name #OccupyNASS, and they have boasted for all to hear that their mission is to shut the National Assembly, recall their lawmakers and force the Senate President to resign, stating, according to the group, that they affirmed that they would continue to serve the wishes of their sponsors until their demands are met, even if law and order are disrupted in the Capital city of Nigeria.
Phil Roberts, asserted that, “As young patriotic Nigerians, we find it rather strange, disturbing and indeed peculiar that in a country where it is gradually becoming obvious that Rule of Law has become a mirage in our legal system, where innocent people are slaughtered everyday by Fulani herdsmen and nothing is said or done to check this careless waste of innocent lives, where having constant electricity for 3 hours in a day is a miracle even when cost of electricity has gone up, where we constantly spend all our productive hours of the week standing at filling stations to buy a commodity God has blessed us abundantly with, that able bodied young men and women would prefer to solicit for scraps from politicians and government sources.
“Not to call their attention to the need to urgently address these issues affecting all of us as a people, but would rather match in protest for the resignation of Senator Bukola Saraki, whose crime is that his colleagues voted him in as the president of the Senate against the wishes of their pay masters. Truly, something has to be done to re-orientate this group.
“For the sake of clarity, we want to remind this misguided group that the National Assembly is a duly constituted arm of government in Nigeria, which derives its powers from its independence. That same mandate is why it is only elected members of the National Assembly that have the powers to elect their leaders, and not sponsored agents on the streets. To think that people can gather anywhere and then decide who resigns or who is elected in the National Assembly shows that the originators of this shameful campaign have no idea whatsoever what democracy is about, but are rather half-baked noisemakers who make a living simply by making noise”, stated Amb. Phil.
Also the Secretary General, Save Our National Assembly, Mr. Emmanuel Adamu, intimated that their aim and objective is that they want the world to know that they want the National Assembly to be protected.
According to him, “Are we saying that Nigeria should be left in the hands of hoodlums like this? Nigerians must realize something, we must not continue to allow evil to thrive. The Senate selects its leadership and the leadership of the Senate has right to remove its leadership.
“We are calling on all Nigerians to discourage anything that will generate tension the more or restiveness in the system”.
Nevertheless, the Commonwealth Youth Council for Peace Ambassador, Joy Tiku, urged all Nigerians to embrace peace and shun violence, “”We are one Nigeria, irrespective of our tribes, colour, religion, culture, etc. we must give peace a chance to reign”, she reiterated.
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