C'River: South-South APC Support Groups Leadership Caucus Discourages Planned Protest
By Ebi COLLINS
South South APC support Groups Leadership Caucus has spoken against the planned 'hardship protest,' slated for August 1, saying it would not be part of such unconscionable event against the state and country.
The group stressed that as law-abiding and peace loving people who are knowledgeable about amicable ways of addressing teething issues, it would never contemplate the destruction of their hard earned assets which cost the states a fortune to put in place, as a means of passing a message.
Addressing a world press conference in Calabar, the Cross River capital, the caucus, in conjunction with the office of the Special Assistant to the Cross River Governor on Support Groups, admitted that the planners of the said protest have failed to apply the principles of consultation, dialogue and consolidation, which are panacea of effective conflict resolution, before resorting to afront.
Presenting a document signed by the chairman of the Central Planning Committee (CPC), Iso Bassey Edim and the Secretary, Bright Ewona, the group stated that "in as much as every citizen has constitutional right to express him/herself through protest and any other form of agitation, protest is never the best way to go first."
According to the group, Cross River cannot afford to have another violent protest as the state and parts of the nation are still bearing the brunts of the 2020 EndSARS protest, which rocked Nigeria to her very core, sweeping the nation of properties worth billions of naira while inflicting injuries on families, even as the perpetrators were mostly strangers.
The body tasked security agencies "to be on the lookout for the planners of this unwanted protest in our state through thorough searching of vehicles coming into the state.
"The security should please also be on alert around the waterways and other red lines/areas in the state capital and its environs.
"We hereby advice hotel owners to put in place some measures to scrutinize their guests as information available to us is that the prospective perpetuators of this unwanted/planned protest would start coming into the state capital and shall be lodging in the various hotels in Calabar.
"We recommend the closure of any hotel that would harbour/accommodate these strangers elements whose assignment is to destroy our beloved state just as they did during the EndSARS protest," the group statement read.
The South-South APC Support Groups Leadership Caucus, through the statement also disclosed that the Cross River governor, Prince Bassey Otu, in a way to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal, has offered cash, food and material palliatives to alleviate the suffering of the masses hence, would never embark on any destructive protest.
"The governor/government of Cross River runs an open door policy where ideas and good suggestions are welcomed and even put into practice which are seen and witnessed by Cross Riverians, so anyone or group of persons who has any good idea should do well to approach the governor of the state and not protest in our dear state.
"We are Cross Riverians who think Cross River and would never support anything that would drag our dear state backwards," the group stated.
