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Police barred from carrying
guns during strike
By Sebastine
Ebhuomhan
Reporter, Lagos
Building on public praise and
support that resulted from the handling of the general strike last month,
the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun has outlawed the use of
guns in quelling general strikes even as the Nigeria Police have also
vowed to stop next week�s indefinite nationwide strike with all legal
means at its disposal.
According to the Public
Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Emmanuel Ighodalo
who spoke to Daily Independent in his office on Tuesday,
police formations in the country have been instructed by the Police
Headquarters in Abuja not to carry guns during the forthcoming nationwide
strike so as to reduce casualty from death and injury that have often
trailed such crises in the past.
But he reiterated that the
police is still waiting for a formal permit from the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) and civil society organizations (CSOs) purportedly
embarking on the joint strike to protest the recent increase in the prices
of fuel products in the country.
Ighodalo faulted claims by the
organizers that the provision of the nation�s Constitution regarding the
rights and freedom of citizens to associate supercede that of the Public
Order Act and further explained that going by the provisions of the same
constitution, it will be illegal for labour to involve or prevent other
Nigerians who are not interested in joining them from going about their
normal duties and means of livelihood.
�What the police is saying is
not that there should not be a mass rally or protest but that the police
should be aware of it. The police stand by the Public Order Act which says
that you should apply for police permit. It is their obligation to alert
the police on what they want to do. A situation where they think they can
just do something unilaterally without recourse to the security rules is
what we are going to resist�
Continuing, Ighodalo added:
�The Inspector General has directed that nobody should die and that nobody
should be assaulted. This directive is in consonance with the �robust
Public Relations strategy of the police�. We do not want people to die. We
do not want to arrest people. We do not want to molest people either
because we want to make sure that the lives of people are safe especially
as life is sacrosanct.
However, we would use all the
powers that we can muster to prevent this mass protest without harming
anybody. Instructions have been given and nobody is going to flout the
IG�s directive that police should not use guns to quell the strike. How we
intend to achieve our aims is a strategy that we are keeping to our
chest.�
Meanwhile preparations have
been stepped up at individual, corporate and governmental levels by the
respective authorities who do not want to be caught unawares again like it
happened on October 11, when the last call for a four-day warning strike
for this coming strike was widely observed. For example, the Consulate
General of the United States of America has cancelled its weekly press
briefing for next week so as to avoid a situation where most journalists
stayed away due to the last general strike.
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