Youths protesting against Police brutality in Osun State have suspended protest in the state to allow victims seek redress through the state panel of inquiry.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo on Tuesday, the youths under the aegis of EndSARS movement commended the resilience and doggedness with which youths in the state embarked on the protest to end brigandage by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad units of the Nigeria Police.
According to Ayo Ologun, who was flanked by Emmanuel Oluwasegun and Ebenezer Oluwasegun, the movement was however disappointed with the manner hoodlums infiltrated the protest and turned into a gathering of miscreants hurting the masses rather liberating them from the oppressive tendencies of the police.
He said, “We enjoin our comrades to avoid any form of public gathering in respect of #Endsars and to uphold the collective suspension of protest as earlier agreed to allow government in Osun State to carry out necessary steps towards meeting array of our demands, especially the 5-point demand as endorsed by the Federal Government.
“The patriotic commitment and stance of our youths against brutal force and unlawful activities of the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad(SARS) remain unforgettable and exemplary, it is indeed a watershed in the annals of our dear country.
“Unfortunately, in the course of our genuine struggle for the emancipation of the weak and downtrodden, and for better society of our desire, some unscrupulous elements with divisive tendencies sneaked into the barricade and disrupted our procession.
“The most disheartening and pathetic of this rude obstruction of our movement to the point of egalitarianism was the kleptomaniac tendencies of these individuals, who used our popular struggle as a cover to steal, maim, and vandalise our common patrimony.
“We were astonishingly taken aback, and utterly saddened with the criminal manner these elements went about looting both public and private properties and almost turned the state to the arena of anarchy and turmoil, before the swift intervention of the state government.
“Going forward, therefore, as we implicitly comply with 24-hour curfew imposed on the state by the government, for the ultimate goal of returning sanity and peace into the state, we hereby use this medium to notify our teeming youths that every agitation and protest has been put on hold.
“It should be noted that anybody caught on the street doing otherwise under the guise of #EndSARS protest would be treated as a defiant and such individual will consequently face the full wrath of the law.
“We further enjoin anybody with genuine claim of police brutality other related matters to approach the newly inaugurated Judicial Panel of Enquiry for redress”.
