President Bola Tinubu is to address Nigerians at 7.00am tomorrow, Sunday, Auggust 4, in the wake of the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest taking place across the country, which entered its third day Saturday.
So said presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale in a statement.
The purpose of the protest, it is said, is to highlight to the Federal Government, mounting discomforts being endured by the general populace as a result of economic hardship occasioning the rising cost of goods and services, including food, and seek reliefs.
“Television, radio, and other electronic media outlets are enjoined to plug into the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for the broadcast.
“The broadcast will be repeated on the network services of the NTA and the FRCN at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm on the same day,” Ngelale said.
Since the protests started on Thursday, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Tinubu’s contenders in the last election ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have loudly called on him to address defiant youths who have taken to the streets to express their displeasure over the wobbling economy and the attendant hardship in the country.
Global humanitarian agency, Amnesty International, claims 13 persons were killed in the first day of the nationwide protests, Thursday, in Nigeria and is calling for a probe.
In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International listed the states where the killings took place, saying six persons were killed in Suleja, Niger state, with dozens severely wounded.
It added that four people were killed in Maiduguri and three were killed in Kaduna.
The agency added: “The Nigerian authorities must investigate these incidents impartially and effectively and ensure that security personnel suspected of responsibility for the alleged deadly use of force are held to account through fair trial.
“Violent crackdown on peaceful protesters is unjustified and unacceptable. The Nigerian authorities’ fierce clampdown on peaceful protests yesterday and the harmful rhetoric by government officials ahead of the protests appear to be part of a wider plan to find justification for depriving people of the right to peaceful protest.
“Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty.
“Particularly in Abuja, the police have routinely misused tear gas against largely peaceful protesters.
“The relentless repression of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly speaks to the Nigerian authorities’ growing hostility to dissent.
“Nigerian security agencies’ unlawful attitude of using firearms as tactical tools for the management of protests must end.
‘The Nigerian government must also pay more attention to taking concrete steps to address the impact of on economic, social, and cultural rights, including people’s rights to health and education.
“Authorities must also end the rampant violations of the people’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.”
