By Moses Okorie
Following reports of planned nationwide protect being organised by some individuals within and outside the country, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has called on Nigerians to express their gravedances through dialogue instead of violence.
A statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the Deputy Director Press of NOA, Mr. Paul Odenyi quoted the Director General of the Agency, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu to have made it clear that the channels of communication to government and its various arms remain open to dialogue said it will continue to respects citizens’ rights to protest and associate freely in line with democratic principles.
According to Onilu, that the identities of many of the brains behind the protest have been known, along with their collaborators who are safely residing abroad and the government is taking necessary actions to stop their subversive plans.
He also said that the intentions of the elements behind the planned protest are not about governance or state of the economy but a decoy to destabilize the country, cause mayhem and carry out arson, killings, maiming of innocent citizens for narrow political reasons
“NOA is intensifying efforts in civil intelligence gathering and sensitization of community leaders, parents and youths across the 774 local governments on the need for vigilance and collective preventive actions.
“The other objective of the protest is to project to the international community, a picture of an unstable country as part of the grand design to intimidate the government and seek patronage of the bigger sponsors of the planned protest”, NOA added.