#RevolutionNow: Ex-IPAC chair wants protesters arrested, persecuted

By Paul Efiong, Abuja

To address all the insecurity problems in Nigeria as well as prevent such negative trend in the country, the Director General, National Taskforce to Combat Illegal Importation of Small Arms,Ammunitions, Light Weapons,Chemical Weapons and Pipelines Vandalisms(NATFORCE) Chief Dr.Osita Emmanuel Okereke(OON) has advocated for immediate arrest and prosecution of all those involved in such issues in the country.
Chief Okereke was speaking yesterday when some reporters met him in his Abuja office for his reaction over the planned #RevolutionNow protest by some civil society groups against the backdrop of the arrest and detention of Omoyele Sowore in Lagos by the DSS operatives.
Chief Okereke who was also the former chairman Inter-Party Advisory Council(IPAC) also urged government to invoke full scale of justice on those trying to compound insecurity problem in Nigeria through protest.
It would be recalled that the operatives of the Department Of State Service(DSS) had accused Omoyele Sawole of treasonable felony.
Speaking further, Chief Okereke said government must not fold their hands to see the plan revolution protest adding that organizers supposed to have requested for police permission before contemplating such a movement in view of the country’s security situation.
“Such a move could be hijacked by some unscrupulous element in the society and the next thing could only be imagine” he stressed.
It would be remembered that the Police had accused Sowore and the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria of trying to force a regime change in the country which Okereke advised should be resisted by security agencies.
NATFORCE boss while explaining further emphasized that inciting Nigerians at home and abroad, to join a a revolution’ march against the government and the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria mounts to treasonable felony and acts of terrorism.
Sowore who is a pro-democracy activist and the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 general elections, had been persuading a critical mass of Nigerians, through various platforms of his readiness for #RevolutionNow, a series of planned protests against the government at the Centre.
To serve as deterrent to others with similar intent of causing havoc, the NATFORCE ,therefore, advised the Department of State Services (DSS) to immediately arraign Sowore for treason.
On the way towards solving most of the insecurity challenges in the country , the NATFORCE boss said it is by empowering his organization to operate on full scale.
“We want government attention now than ever, because we have teeth but we cannot bit, all we want from the government is to ratify our Bill which has been in the two chambers of the National Assembly for years now and we shall work hard to redeem this country from the present state of insecurity.’