Hon. Seun Fakorede, Oyo Commissioner for Youths and Sport, has held a meeting with youth stakeholders in the state over EndSars protests.
The meeting held in the Commissioner’s office last Saturday was to discuss salient Issues surrounding the protests in the state and across the country.
OYOMIND recalls that a few weeks ago, youths in the state joined their counter in the country to raise their voice against police brutality and harassment by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The meeting had in attendance various individuals who are known to be frontiers of the struggle to demand an environment free of oppression.
Resolutions from the meeting include;
- That since the protest does not have a leader and it is faceless, it should remain so.
- That although it is advisable for security reasons for there not to be any further gathering of peaceful protesters again, the final decision is at the discretion of members of the society.
- The governor should speed up the setting up of the Judicial Panel of the state.
- The Judicial panel should identify all the victims of the protest.
- The government should adequately compensate all the victims of the protests.
- All the activities of the Judicial Panel should be televised or streamed live for public participation and transparency.
- The Judicial Panel should be all-inclusive have youth participation.
- There should be an advocate for state policing so that Governors can have a reasonable measure of security control in States (which is the spirit of true Federalism).
- The 5 for 5 demands should be domesticated.
a. Setting up of a judicial panel to investigate the activities of bad cops.
b. Adequate compensation for all the victims of the protests.
Furthermore, it was said that there is a security situation in the state as some Police stations have been attacked and some guns are still with the supposed hoodlums and thugs.
Also, there shouldn’t be any protest in the state as there have been many physical attacks on the Police, government establishments as well as loss of human lives.
More emphasis was placed on the need to educate and enlighten people not to be violent, destructive whenever there’s need to protest.
While the Commissioner reiterated his efforts in working with the State Government to implement protesters’ demands, he noted that all protesters that were arrested have been released.
