The Vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed it is not far from the truth when Nigerians refer to the massive violation of human rights during the protest as “massacre”.
Baba-Ahmed who made the assertion while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday noted that his party is not a direct beneficiary of the #EndSARS movement, but the truth must be told.
According to him, the Labour Party benefits from a peaceful Nigeria.
He explained that if voted into power in the 2023 general elections, the LP will bring about correcting the mistakes of bad governance as well as positive changes in the country.
“While we are always on the side of good governance, we are against attrition, repression and all those,” he said.
“We are not direct beneficiaries of #EndSARS, we never wanted #EndSARS to happen. We never wanted any Nigerian whatsoever to be attacked. Accordingly, I cannot really say and be happy that we are direct beneficiaries.”
Speaking on the out turn of events leading up to the October 20, 2022 situation wherein some protesters were believed to have been shot by security operatives, he said, “There was abuse of human rights, procedure. If some people interpret it as massacre, then yes.”
“These are well meaning Nigerians who brought themselves to a public area and were attacked by security forces that are meant to be protecting their lives and properties.”
“The use of massacre is highly debatable but I can say for sure that there were abuses of procedure and civil rights violations,” he said.
Similarly,ahead of the 2023 general election which is barely four months away, he also pledged on behalf of the party will tackle insecurity, address corruption as well as fix the economy, while focusing well on education for the young Nigerians.