Foremost Human Rights Group In Nigeria, CDHR, Unveils Its Position On Planned Nationwide Protests

<h4>Foremost Human Rights Group<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the position of the foremost human rights organisation in Nigeria&comma; the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights&comma; remains clear and focused on the planned protest scheduled to hold in August to end bad governance in Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The human rights group made this disclosure Tuesday night through a statement jointly signed by Comrade Debo Adeniran&comma; National President CDHR Nigeria and Comrade Idris Afees Olayinka&comma; National Publicity Secretary CDHR Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement stated that in an emergency NEC meeting of the organisation held on Tuesday&comma; the 30th of July&comma; CDHR declined joining the planned protest but identified with some of the protest demands as far as end bad governance is concerned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NEC resolved as follows&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&period; <em><strong>CDHR will not join the planned protest coming August because we were not consulted&comma; and not all demands are meetable&comma; especially within 10 days&period; Some require institutional interventions&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Also&comma; CDHR can not go to nationwide protest tagged &&num;8220&semi;10 days of rage&&num;8221&semi; by the organisers&comma; which portrends confrontation and violence&period; CDHR did not have inputs in the plans&comma; strategies&comma; and tactics of the protest&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>2&period; CDHR identifies with some of the protest demands of End bad governance in Nigeria&period; The demands are true&comma; genuine&comma; and realistic&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;The government must&comma; as a matter of urgency&comma; attend to it&colon; inappropriate fuel subsidy removal&comma; hike electricity tariffs&comma; heavy taxes on formal and informal sector&comma; hike in tuition fees&comma; and hyper inflation among others&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>3&period; CDHR suggests staging an international press conference to channel all the demands of the end bad governance agitators instead of trooping to the streets&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Public opinion did not generally favour the planned protest and also to avoid being hijacked by unscrupulous elements with different intentions&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;After all&comma; the threat of the planned protest has put the government on serious pressures&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Some of the political elites have started fleeing the country while the federal government rolls out some measures to ease the suffering of the masses&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Also&comma; the Nigerian people should be charged to hold all elected office holders accountable&comma; and the government at all levels &lpar;state governors&comma; sentors&comma; and the honourable members&rpar; given them ultimatum to fix the country&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>4&period; CDHR charged all the security apparatus to be professional enough to curtail elements of destruction and violence if the protest is held as scheduled&period; They should not be the one to insight violence on peaceful protesters&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>5&period; CDHR condemned all comments tagging the planned protest ethinc colouration as some of the demands of the planned protest affect all Nigerian masses<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>6&period; CDHR acknowledged recent measures by the federal government to restructure the country and to ease mass suffering&colon; breakthrough in local government autonomy&comma; signing of new minimum wage in to law&comma; selling of crude to Dangote Refinery in naira&comma; crashing the price of 50kg bag of rice to 40&comma;000 naira&comma; subsidising local oil production among others&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NEC&comma; however&comma; direct all our state branches and units to take the above as the position of CDHR regarding the planned protest against end bad governance in Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;