The All Progressives Congress (APC) accused opposition parties on Tuesday of inciting huge protests in several major cities throughout the country to destabilise President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
On Monday, protesters including women and youths blocked major roads in Minna, the Niger State capital to register their displeasure over the rising cost of living.
The protesters claimed that the growing cost of food and inadequate government efforts to address the situation compelled them to block important roadways so that the government would hear their cries.
A day after the Niger protest and a similar one in Kano State, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka said the demonstrations were the manifestation of this ‘devious’ and ‘unpatriotic plot.’
“The protests in Minna and Kano on Monday were the manifestation of this devious and unpatriotic plot. That the protests happened simultaneously in both cities is not coincidental. It bears a bold stamp of an orchestrated and coordinated effort to instigate unrest and undermine the government. This mercenary opposition tactic is a clear and present threat to public peace and national security,” he said in a statement.
“While we recognize the right of citizens to engage in peaceful protest, we urge our good people to be vigilant and not lend themselves to the treacherous attempt by the opposition to promote social strife by its incendiary rhetoric and manipulative plots.”
To the APC spokesman, the Tinubu-led administration is “solidly committed to doing everything in its power to mitigate the transient pains of critically important reforms that are crucial to economic recovery and sustainable prosperity for all Nigerians.”
He noted that Nigerians owe it a patriotic duty to support the government, adding that the “policy reforms will yield an enduring beneficial transformation of the material conditions of life in the country.”
Morka urged the citizens to shun what he described as the guile and unpatriotic attempt by opposition elements to destabilize the country for their own base and parochial political gains.