SNG Convener, Pastor Tunde Bakare
By Omololu Ogunmade
Save Nigeria Group (SNG) Tuesday condemned deployment of troops to halt peaceful protests over a hike in pump price of petrol in Lagos on Monday and announced its preparation to drag the Federal Government to court over alleged human rights violations and unlawful spending of N1.6 trillion on fuel subsidy in 2011 instead of the budgeted N240 billion.
The group also rejected N97.00 announced by President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday as the new pump price of petrol and vowed to resume protests at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota on January 21.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, Convener of SNG, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who said the violation was uncalled for, disclosed that civil groups which led last week’s protest in Ojota duly secured permission of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, and simultaneously notified the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Yakubu Alkali.
He said to underscore the degree of civil manners in which protesters at Freedom Park conducted themselves throughout the five days of protest last week, policemen deployed to guarantee peace in the Park were idle adding that there was no breakdown of law and order.
He said Fashola had in his reaction to the troop deployment, attested to the peaceful conduct of the rallies, explaining that if it was at all necessary, policemen were the authorised persons to be deployed to the Park and not soldiers. “It is unfortunate that this brutal dictatorship is taking place in a civilian dispensation. But we chose to be much more mature than the Federal Government by not allowing any ugly situation to be created at the Park. We shall definitely enforce our rights in court to teach the regime the basic principles of civilised conduct in a democratic setting.
“We shall also use the court to compel an investigation into how the Federal Government ended up spending N1.6 trillion as against the N240 billion budgeted for subsidy in the 2011 fiscal year. We cannot sweep under carpet the spending of over N1.3 trillion without appropriation by the National Assembly. We shall never ‘move on’ on this matter until the full weight of the law comes on all those involved in this illegal spending,” Bakare said.