Gen. Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, has said during a press conference in Abuja, that the military might step in “to control the looting and violence being witnessed in some parts of the country” as a result of the nationwide protest tagged #EndBadGovernance.
The protest started in Abuja, Kano, Niger, Borno, Kaduna and Jigawa states. One of the effects has been the distruption of businesses.
General Musa said he was aware of the “grievances” of the protesters on the challenging economic difficulties in the country, but appealed to Nigerians to be united during “these trying times” and cautioned against looting and vandalisation of property. The defence chief decried the destruction of valuables during the nationwide protests, describing it as “crazy.”
The military, and other security agencies, according to him, “will not fold” their arms and “allow this country to be destroyed.”
“The Armed Forces and the entire security agencies will not stand by and see that to continue. We want to warn those that are recalcitrant; those that don’t want to listen that we will not fold our arms and allow this country to be destroyed.
“We will take action and the action we will take, we will take it professionally. Anyone that is caught will be taken to court and will be dealt with.
“There are a bunch of people who believe that it is only through this medium that they will be able to loot, steal and destroy. And that is what they tried to do yesterday but we have arrested most of them that broke into places to steal and they will be prosecuted accordingly.
“We are also going behind to ensure that we also identify those that are involved; there are individuals who are sponsoring them, pushing them to do this, we are going after them,” he added.
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