The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Christopher Musa, says the military will intervene if the ongoing nationwide #EndbadGovernance protests persist violently.
Musa was reacting to the vandalisation and looting of properties that characterised the protest in many parts of the country on Thursday.
In Kano, protesters looted the newly built Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) Industrial Park, setting parts of it ablaze.
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The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre was scheduled for commissioning next week.
Briefing newsmen on Friday, Musa urged protesters to recognise that destruction is counterproductive and would only set the nation aback.
While applauding the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for its attempt to establish order, he added that the military would be forced to step in if the violence persists.
He said: “We should realise that these destructions and monies have to be used—monies for development will have to be used to develop these things so we can move forward, and so instead of doing that, we should come together to make sure nothing is destroyed.
“The statement has already been passed to the local, state, and federal governments. We want to warn those that are recalcitrant, those that don’t want to listen, that we will not fold our hands and see our country destroyed.
“We will take action, and the action that we’ll take will be professional. Anyone who is caught will be taken to the courts to be dealt with. Let us avoid anything that will bring mayhem within our communities.
“We have seen the level of destruction that has been carried out just yesterday, and so you can imagine if this continues for so long. The armed forces and the entire military security agencies will not stand by and see that to continue.”
Before the planned protest, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, had said there were plans to involve the Armed Forces if things got out of control.
Speaking Tuesday while hosting a Zoom meeting with concerned Nigerians, Egbetokun said soldiers will be asked to monitor public demonstrations if there are sufficient reasons to believe that what happened during the 2020 #EndSARS protests will reoccur.
He had said: “For those people who are threatening violence, most of them are faceless. Most of them remain faceless. And for those of them that we have been able to trace, we have picked some of them up; they are already in our detention.
“We arrested one yesterday who was threatening violence, who was instigating people to go and bomb public places and burn down police stations. We have such in our custody.
“With respect to the involvement of the military, the military is not going to come out to provide security during this protest. The military will only come out when the situation gets out of hand. What happened during the #EndSARS, the military did not just come out.
“We have forgotten that five police stations were burnt down in one day before the government of Lagos announced a curfew.”
