Kill Bandits, Not Protesters, Ajaero Tells Police

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Joe Ajaero has appealed to police authorities not to kill peaceful protesters.

Rather, he said they should focus on killing bandits.

He urged President Bola Tinubu to address the current national issue and deliver answers to all of the demands of the protesters.

Ajaero said: “With unconfirmed reports putting casualties at 40+ in two days of managing the EndHunger protest across the country, we have sufficient reasons (backed up by reports and video clips) to question the professionalism of our security personnel as this represents nothing but MASSACRE of citizens.

“Had the security personnel deployed the same thoughtless brutal precision against bandits or other criminals, our country would have been an eldorado. As the lead-agency in internal security management, the police bear the burden of this massacre.”

Ajaero said Kaduna police command under the watch of Audu Ali Dabigi, a Commissioner of Police, “represents the worst case scenario in which one of the fleeing protesters was heard on camera desperately appealing to the deployed police personnel not to shoot until his voice was drowned by a hail of bullets with the resultant death of a protester on the spot and several injured.”

He added: “In the same breadth, Edo State Police Command under the personal command of COMPOL Funsho Adegboroye represents the best in crowd management as he could be heard interacting and cajoling the protesters and almost effortlessly bringing them under control.

“It might be convenient to argue that the two states do have different socio-cultural milieux, however, an incontestable truth common to both, and indeed, all the states is that human life is sacred and should never be taken.