Planned protests for today (Thursday) in some cities in the Northern part of the country as part of Omoyele Sowore’s #RevolutionNow protests have suffered huge setback, as nine Northern groups that made up the Joint Northern Action Front, have pulled out.
The groups announced their pull out in a joint press statement issued in Kaduna in Wednesday by the group’s Secretary, Tanko Mustapha.
Mustapha said: “We are pleased to announce today that these nine groups have resolved to pull its members out of tomorrow’s planned protests called by the Joint Northern Action Front which we were part of.”
According to him, the withdrawal of the groups from the protests was based on some considerations.
“We have reviewed the planned protests by critically looking into the nature, salient intentions and most importantly the likely negative consequences on the North in particular and democracy in general.
“We discovered that the main intention of the protests is far from checking government excesses that are of national concerns, but rather to further the hidden agenda of some people.
“Our concern is that the nature of the protests may very likely not be peaceful and it will not only be unproductive but may have negative consequences on the north and our democracy as well.
“We weighed all the possibilities against the background of its dangerous consequences in countries like Libya and Yemen who embarked on such moves blindly.
“After candidly weighing the pros and cons, we arrived at the conclusion that the exercise is ill-informed, in bad taste, counterproductive, self-serving as well as an ill wind that will not blow anybody any good.
“Despite the lapses in governance in all aspects, especially in security, economy, and infrastructure, we wish to align with the patriotic position of the apex conglomerate of groups in the north, the CNG, that every issue can be discussed and resolved in a civilized manner and never by violence.
“We today, therefore, declare a complete pullout from participation in the organization and call on the protesters and all people of the north to disregard the calls,” he said.
Mustapha however called on the government to as a matter of urgency to address all the observed lapses and misgovernance to avoid uprisings.
