#EndSARS protest has been hijacked by hoodlums and by people with ulterior motives bent at destabilizing the country- Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture., Lai Mohammed, has alleged that the #EndSARS protests have been hijacked by hoodlums and people working to destabilize the country and that no responsible government will fold its arms and allow the state to be thrown to a state of anarchy.

Lai Mohammed said this during an interview on a Radio Nigeria programme today October 18 while speaking on the lingering End SARS protest.

According to him, the Federal government has met the demands of the protesters and sees no reason why the protests persist.

“When you look at the demands of the #EndSARS and the decisions of the Federal Government, it is clear that there is no single demand of the group that has not been met. Therefore, one will begin to ask if there is any ulterior motive because what we have witnessed in the last few days is that they have moved their demands from five to seven.

As soon as the government approved one demand, another one will follow. From the five demands which were initially tabled and have been addressed, they are now including petrol price, national assembly salaries and allowances, electricity tariff, among others.

Then you begin to ask yourself what exactly is the motive of the protests and who are those behind them” he said

Speaking further, Mohammed said

“Peaceful protest is synonymous with democratic tenets and to that extent we see the EndSARS protest as the manifestation of how far our democracy has developed.

Regrettably, the protest has been hijacked by hoodlums and by people with ulterior motives bent at destabilising the country. As of today, many people in many parts of the country simply cannot go out because people are being intimidated and roads have been blocked.

There was a report of a pregnant woman that died inside the ambulance simply because she could not get to the hospital because of the protesters. This cannot be allowed to continue because where your right stops another person’s rights begin.

“While government will continue to engage, no responsible government will fold its arms and allow the state to be thrown into anarchy” he said