The Federal Government has set up a committee to engage youths, representatives of Civil Society Organisations, religious and traditional leaders on the fallout of the recent #EndSARS protests. The decision was reached at an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council in Abuja, on Monday, chaired by Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and attended by Governors of the 36 States of the federation, FCT Minister, Central Bank Governor, Inspector General of Police, representatives from the Military, the Directorate of State Security, and the National Human Rights Commission, The NEC meeting, which lasted for more than four hours reached a resolution and appointments were made into the newly established committee. Deliberations were made and solutions were sought to bring peace to the various States where the youths have been on rampage, like addressing the deeper issues behind the #ENDSARS protests and its fallouts by both the Federal and the State governments.
The Council committee, chaired by the Vice President is composed of three Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and three All Progressives Congress (APC) governors, representing the six geopolitical zones.
They are: Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal; Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum; Governor of Niger State, Bello; Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu; Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa.
The committee will engage the youths, representatives of Civil Society Organizations, religious and traditional leaders on national unity, employment, social safety net programmes, among other key issues of concern.
The committee, which is expected to commence work immediately, will develop a comprehensive framework under the auspices of NEC that would coordinate joint actions and steps to be taken by both the federal and state governments to examine the fundamental issues underlining the protests and arrive at effective solutions, including how to enhance Nigeria’s national security.
It also maintained that most personnel of Nigerian security agencies are law abiding and are capable of restoring law and order in the country.
The NEC, while supporting President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to a complete overhaul of the nation’s security services, also commended the Nigerian Police and Security agencies for their handling of the disturbances in some States of the Federation.
