Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), caved to pressure on Monday and asked police top brass to safeguard participants in the planned #EndBadGovernance rally, which is scheduled for August 1-10, 2024.
Last week, the IGP demanded the names and other details of potential demonstration participants as a condition for protecting marchers, but many Nigerians promptly rejected this request. The police then stated that possessing such information is common procedure to safeguard the safety of all participants and prevent any illegal activity.
However, in a letter to human rights lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa on Monday, the IGP urged police commanders to protect protestors across the nation.
On July 26, 2024, Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), wrote to the IGP requesting police coverage for protesters. The senior lawyer wrote to the IGP on behalf of the Take It Back Movement, one of the groups organising the #EndBadGovernance protest in August.
In his response letter dated July 29, 2024, the IGP asked senior police personnel to comply with the senior lawyer’s request.
Egbetokun’s response was signed by his Principal Staff Officer, CP Johnson Adenola.
The IGP also requested a meeting with Adegboruwa in Abuja on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, “to deliberate further” on the issue.
“I am to inform you that the Inspector General of Police has directed the Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (Operations and Intelligence), the Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) in charge of Zonal Police Headquarters and the Commissioners of Police (CPs) in charge of State Commands across the country to attend to your request.
“I am to also inform you that the Inspector General of Police wishes to have a meeting with you at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday, 30th July 2024 to deliberate further on your request,” CP Adenola said.
The police, military and the Department of State Service had warned against Kenya-styled protest. Politicians, who surmised that the planned rally might end up like the EndSARS demonstration of October 2020, continue to appeal to youths to shelve the planned rallies but the young people remain unfazed, doggedly insisting that the protest will hold.
The protest against economic hardship, which is gaining traction on social media, has been scheduled to be held across all states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital in August.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windows.