Catholic bishops urge protesters to be peaceful, orderly

Ahead of the planned nationwide protest on August 1, the Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province have urged Nigerians who will participate in the protest to be orderly.

According to the bishops who gave the admonition after a meeting held at the Domus Pacis Pastoral Institute in Igoba, Akure, the Ondo State capital, security agencies must ensure the security of the protesters against any form of violence.

The bishops, in a communiqué issued after the meeting, which was signed by the Archbishop of Ibadan Catholic Archdiocese, Gabriel Abegunrin, and Bishop John Oyejola, emphasised that protests should cause no consternation in any normal democratic setting.

While stressing that the right to protest was guaranteed in democratic settings across the world, they stated that the protesters should ensure orderliness in exercising their constitutional rights.

The communique read in parts, “The protests in Nigeria should be made to serve that purpose and none other. Such people should be allowed to go about their lawful business unhindered.

“The organisers of the protest have therefore a responsibility to ensure all these or call off the protest. The protesters should exercise restraint and not disturb or intimidate those who may choose not to participate in the exercise, knowing that it is their inalienable right not to do so.”

The clerics who appealed to governments at all levels to be proactive and responsive to the suffering of Nigerians maintained that “we strongly believe that if governments in Nigeria at all levels had responded more promptly and effectively to the groans and distress calls of the Nigerian people, the current protest would not have gathered momentum.”