Matawalle has begged August 1st Protest Organisers to dialogue with the government.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Muhammed Matawalle, has called on the August 1 planned protest organizers to “come out of their closet and dialogue with the government.”
Matawalle said President Bola Tinubu is open to dialogue, hence calling on the proposed protest leaders to come forward and engage in meaningful discussions.
The minister said this in a statement on Friday, July 26.
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He said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government is committed to dialogue and finding amicable solutions to the challenges we face.
“This commitment is evident in the peaceful resolution the government reached with the Organised Labour on minimum wage.”
Matawalle warned of the potential dangers associated with the planned protest, expressing the fear from different quarters that the protests could be hijacked by mischievous individuals and hoodlums seeking to cause havoc and disunity in the country.
He said: “We must be vigilant and not allow those with malicious intentions to disrupt our peace and unity.
“Those moving to unleash the Kenyan episode on Nigeria should look back and examine the consequences for Kenya. That experience should have no place in Nigeria because it will set us back instead of moving forward.”
He reminded the planners and sponsors of the protest, whom he said have remained faceless, that their plans should not be drawn to “thwart the effort of the Nigerian state to protect citizens from violence and to impose law and order, as such would be counterproductive and unacceptable.”
He said: “Let it also be clear that while our laws and international law allow peaceful protest, assembly, and association, it does not legitimize violence and destruction. And no democracy will allow its citizens to be threatened by either internal or external aggression.
“Protests are constitutional rights; violence in the name of protest is a crime. There are clear provisions against crime in Nigeria as they are under international law.
“Both our laws and other international conventions are clear on the legality of restricting violent assembly and enforcing the law to protect the right of others, to ensure national security, and to guarantee public safety and public order.”
