By Infactng
Former Vice Presidential candidate and Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare has warned President Muhammadu Buhari over clamp-down on promoters of the ENDSARS protests.
Bakare said the clamp-down, intimidation and freezing of accounts of protest promoters is a sign of regression in the country.
The cleric and politician was a vice-presidential candidate to President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2011 Presidential elections on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
The cleric made this known during a state of the nation address titled: “The Youth of a Nation are the Trustees of Posterity” at his church on Sunday.
He argued that government’s actions against the peaceful protesters was contradictory to the olive branch the government extended to the protesters and the promise of far-reaching reforms including scrapping of the Police Tactical Squads etc.
Bakare said: Truth be told, this season of our national life requires deep humility, sobriety and deliberate thinking through, both by the government and the governed, in order to ensure that our plans, policies and actions are weighed before they are implemented to avert the re-occurrence of our most recent crisis.
“ In light of the foregoing, some of the actions recently taken by the government on the heels of the #ENDSARS protests may need to be reversed sooner than later in our collective best interests so that they do not trigger further protests.”
Bakare said some of the policies to be reversed include the freezing of the accounts of young Nigerians who reportedly sponsored the protests.
He said: “Among such policy actions is the freezing of the accounts of young Nigerians who reportedly sponsored the protests. While I admit that, under our extant laws, banks may freeze an account upon an ex-parte order granted to a law enforcement agency by a court of competent jurisdiction for the purpose of investigation, these provisions of our law should not be used to intimidate Nigerian youths simply because they engaged in and promoted protests against the inactions of government.
“In addition, targeting and arresting citizens on trumped-up charges, deploying court probes as a tool of intimidation, and generally eroding our fragile peace, are deeply worrisome signs of regression.”
