Nigeria’s North Central APC Forum Warns Against Protests, Citing Security Challenges and Ethnic Tensions

A statement by the North Central All Progressive Congress (APC) Forum has sent a strong warning to groups planning to protest across the nation, urging them to rethink and retract their steps. According to the forum, such protests would be inimical to the progress of the country at this critical moment.

The forum, led by Chairman Saleh Mandung Zazzaga, claimed that President Bola Tinubu is trying his best to reposition the country and redirect it to the path of greatness. Therefore, all he requires now is support rather than distraction in the name of any protest.

Zazzaga expressed the forum’s opposition to any form of protest, stating that those calling for protests are not doing so out of love for the country, but rather for selfish reasons and cheap political points. Many of these protesters, he claimed, are being sponsored by forces that are enemies of the country and the government.

The chairman also warned protesters not to contemplate staging any protest in the North Central region, citing the current security challenges being tackled by the president through security operatives. He warned that any protest in the region could be hijacked by hoodlums, leading to mayhem and threatening the lives and properties of law-abiding citizens.

Zazzaga noted the spate of kidnappings, banditry, and other violent occurrences in the region, warning that the region cannot afford to have another reactiveness added to it. He also pointed out that protests in parts of the region and the North often take an ethno-religious dimension, culminating in killings between Christians and Muslims.

As an example, he cited the #EndSars protest, which turned violent and took an ethno-religious crisis in Jos, the Plateau State capital. Zazzaga, along with other eminent persons in Jos, went around calming the people down and stopping the violence, ensuring that Christians were protected in Muslim areas and vice versa, before handing them over to the police to unite them with their families safely.

The chairman called on all members across the region to mobilize vigorously and campaign against any form of protest in the region. He also urged governors, religious leaders, traditional rulers, and other eminent personalities in the North Central region to call their wards to order and advise them against participating in any form of protest due to the peculiar situation of the region.