Following the nationwide protest that has been staged by Nigerian youths, calling the government to address police brutality, extortion among others, a coalition of Civil Society Organisation has on Sunday cautioned the Federal Government to prevail on the Nigerian Army in a bid to suspend the planned “Operation Crocodile Smile VI”. This comes after another Coalition of Labour and Civil Society groups cautioned the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Col. Tukur Buratai against the deployment of the military to go after the #EndSARS protesters in order to avoid a bloody clash.
The group stated this when the Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola dismissed insinuation that the EndSARS protesters attacked his convoy.
While debating over the protests in Abuja, the over 30 CSOs, including Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Enough is Enough and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, condemned the military exercise as unacceptable, alleging it was designed to crush the civil protests.
The group kicked following the Army pronouncement of commencement of Operation Crocodile Smile VI which the Army said was to lunch fight against cyberspace criminality across the country during the ember months.
It was gathered that the Operation will run from October to 31st December and would go after cybercrime and negative propaganda by a criminal gang and their associate in the social media cyberspace.
However, the CSO’s faulted the Army operation saying it would only further escalate the distrust between the government and the citizens for dragging the army into a civil case.
Therefore, the group urged the Military to remain in their barrack to defend the territorial integrity of the nation until EndSARS protest is over.
Speaking on behalf of the CSO’s, Ezenwa Nwagwu, the Co-convener said in the last two weeks the youth have taken over the streets in Nigeria over police brutality and other related abuses being perpetrated by the police which has left the policing of the country in a nightmare.
In his statement, “For the avoidance of doubt, these protests are legitimate, and young people who ignited the movement have a right to express their grievances using the weapon of protest.
“While #EndSARS is focused on the immediate concern of a brutish policing system, the protesters are also inherently voicing their anger against a governance system which has failed to reckon with them.
“#EndSARS is, therefore, an affirmation of citizen’s readiness to resist bad governance in all its ramifications, beginning with inadequate government response over the prolonged trend of police brutality.
“The accumulated anger of citizens over decades of failure in the delivery of basic social services, endemic corruption, and impunity of political office holders has precipitated distrust of, and lack of confidence in the state and its institutions.
Accordingly, the CSO has joined the youth in demanding: “Accountability for previous, current, and ongoing acts of the brutalization of citizens from the government and its agencies. Offending officers must be identified, investigated, prosecuted, and punished.
“That a mechanism is put in place to identify all previous and current victims of police brutality, to ensure that they get justice, including compensations.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army says “Operation Crocodile Smile” has nothing to do with #EndSARS protest.
In response to the statement yesterday, Musa Sagir, Army spokesman, said it is wrong to say the exercise is targeted at protesters who are out in major cities across the country.
The statement partly reads: “The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has been drawn to some social media stuff wrongfully condemning the Army and its Leadership over the announcement of Exercise CROCODILE SMILE VI particularly the Cyber Warfare Component of the Exercise. This year’s Exercise CROCODILE SMILE is scheduled to commence from the 20th of October to the 31st of December 2020 has no relationship with any lawful protest under any guise whatsoever.
