You shouldn’t have protested in the market, Femi Adesina tells Charly Boy group

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, says the protesters led by Charles Oputa, better known as Charly Boy, were wrong to have taken a protest to Wuse market in Abuja.

A mob attacked the anti-Buhari protesters at the market on Tuesday.

The protesters were demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari either resume office or resign. But they have suspended further protests following alleged threats to their lives.

The president has been in the UK where he is receiving medical treatment since May 7.

On Wednesday, pro-Buhari groups, reportedly from the Niger Delta, marched to the gateway of the presidential villa to register their support for the president.

They were received by Adesina and Garba Shehu, his colleague.

Responding to the incident of Tuesday, the presidential spokesman said those who took the protest to the market ethnicised the action.

“I can see from the banners you are holding, from the placards, that you cut across different areas of the Niger Delta; I have seen Itsekiri, I have seen Ogoni – so many other areas, Urhobo, Isoko. Indeed, this is very good, it shows that Nigeria will remain one country,” he said.

“What we have noticed is that some people have made efforts to create ethnic cleavages in the country, but what you have done today has reinforced our faith that Nigeria will remain one.

“We are not for ethnic cleavages, we are for one Nigeria. Anybody that attempted to ethnicise protests failed. Because everyone has a right to protest and ethnicity is not something that should be introduced to protest.

“Taking a protest to the market in the first place was wrong, so whoever took the protest to the market place was the one that attempted to make it get out of hand.

“We want to thank you because you have shown your faith and trust in the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari. That, indeed, is a leadership we can trust. That is a leadership you know will not take us for a ride. It is a leadership that wouldn’t steal our money; it is a leadership that will do the best for our country.”