Members of the Progressive Citizens Congress (PPC) yesterday protested against the Amnesty International, telling them to leave the country. The protesters gathered at Bonny camp and marched to the United States Embassy in Victoria Island, Lagos. They carried placards and banners with the inscriptions: Stop supporting terrorists to destroy our country; Stop blackmailing our government and her peace building effort; Leave Nigeria in seven days or we drag you to the Hague; Enough is enough to Amnesty international and other trouble makers in Nigeria.
The PPC president, Comrade Desmond Abiona, noted that their presence at the embassy was to express their grievances over Amnesty International. ”We are here to show our grievances to the United States Embassy because we know that Amnesty International is one of their organisations in Nigeria that is even showcasing what they have for us but to our dismay, what is happening today, when Nigerian Army is going this direction, the Amnesty International are going the other way and they are giving us conflicting reports about the issue of terrorism and Boko Haram in Nigeria. We want the Nigerian Army and Amnesty International to be on the same page so that we can fight this terrorism to a standstill.”
Maintaining that the activities of Amnesty International are counterproductive to the fight against terrorism, Abiona said: “When the Amnesty International is going the other way, supporting the terrorists against the Nigerian Army, they are simply telling us that we have a divided house, and until we can put our house in order, we cannot fight terrorism. That is why we are here to tell the United States Embassy that they should call Amnesty International to order and tell them to look inward and see what is good about the Nigerian Army and report it correctly so that people will know what is going on.”
The Secretary General of the group, Comrade Kolawole Abbey, said: ”We are here in solidarity with the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Army, and to commend them for a job well done. The menace of terrorism has grown beyond what it used to be and some things have eluded us.”