The State Security Service (SSS) said on Thursday that it has “confirmed a sinister plan by some elements to infiltrate” The nationwide protest being planned by young Nigerians “and use it to cause violence.
State service Service spokesperson Peter Afunanya in a statement acknowledged that “peaceful protest is a democratic right of citizens as eshrined in the Nigeria constitution but he alleged that the organisers of the #endbadgovernance protest have a political motive no altruistic motive.
In his statement, the State Security service agency said it has identified the planners of the protest as well as their sponsors
DSS COUNSELS AGAINST PLANNED PROTEST IN NIGERIA
The department of state security services has followed the discourse on planned protests in parts of the country in the coming weeks by persons and groups yet to identify themselves in the public as leaders and sponsors of the protest.
The agency said though peaceful protest is a constitutional right of all citizens, the Service has confirmed a sinister plan by some elements to infiltrate the protest and use it to cause violence in the land.
Afunaya said it has also identified that the reasons are pure politics. The plotters aim is to use the intended violent outcome to smear the federal and sub-national governments; make them unpopular and pit them against the masses while the long term objective is to achieve a regime change especially at the federal level.
The Service said it has also identified, among others, the funding lines, sponsors and collaborators of the plot. However, it does not think that aggression should be the first line of action in the instance, in handling the emerging scenario.
Aboveall, the agency says it has instead, variously applied non kinetic and conflict resolution strategies, including moral persuasion, stakeholder engagement and other multi-track diplomatic shuttles, to dissuade the planners from actualizing their undesirable objective.
