by Joy Odor
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and all its State Chairmen on Friday take stand with President Bola Tinubu against the planned hunger protests, expressing concern that the masterminds are faceless.
The National Chairman of the Party, Abdullahi Ganduje who made their stand known while presiding over the meeting with all APC State Chairmen in Abuja assured of dealing with all the legitimate grievances by Tinubu administration.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the meeting on behalf of all the APC State Chairmen, the National Publicity Secretary
Felix Morka and the National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru respectively enjoined all the APC State Chairmen to make themselves available to their governors to stop the protests.
Both Secretaries dismissed the demands of the individuals behind the protest as political, maintaining that some of the demands would require amendment of the Constitution which they noted could not be effected in ten days, the scheduled timeline of the protests.
According to them, “in the meeting, we examined the current national situation, regarding planned protest. We acknowledge the current difficult situation that people are living through.
“The agitation to have the President dump the constitution vowed to protect would amount to a mission impossible.
“Yes, we recognize the right to peaceful protest, but the Constitution guarantees that the security of lives is the responsibility of government. We won’t sit back and allow the social infrastructures done by this administration to be destroyed.
“Even if we want to engage in dialogue, do we engage in dialogue with faceless people. ?It shows that they have sinister motive.
“Among their demands is the scrapping of the 1999 Constitution and a sovereign conference. That’s political. Constitutional amendment can’t be done by a presidential fiat. They are asking the President to do what it doesn’t have the power to do.
“There is an ongoing Constitutional amendment. Anybody interested in that should submit a memorandum. There is no need to hold the nation to ransom for ten days because of that.
“They are also asking for a new minimum wage. That has been addressed as the National Assembly has passed an enabling legislation for that. So, that demand is outdated and overtaken by event.
“They also talked about releasing the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu. With respect, he is facing trial in court and he is being accorded fair trial.”
“We stand firmly with the President, the government is doing all it could do and willing to do more.
“The National Security Adviser has said this protest is liable to be misdirected to cause chaos.
“We have the EFCC, ICPC and people are being tried and under Nigerian law, everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
“We took the conclusion that most of their demands are political and bother on red herring” the stressed.
