The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has decried the deployment of armed troops to the streets of Lagos, describing it as undemocratic.
The party, in a statement in Lagos, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that with the move, President Goodluck Jonathan has become like military dictators of the past who used used force to suppress a peaceful protest by unarmed citizens.
The CAN scribe said, ‘’Whoever advised the President to take this path has done him a great disservice and ruined his democratic credentials, if ever he had any.”
To the ACN, he said, the action also showed that President Jonathan had lost touch with the people whose support he sought before getting to office last April.
Faulting the move further, Mohammed said that the series of rallies had been well organised; a situation he said was an unprecedented show of unity in a carnival like atmosphere to justify the deployment.
“We condemn the tactless and unnecessary show of force in Lagos, and will like to remind Mr. President that it is only a government that has run out of ideas on how to engage its people on issues, no matter how vexing, that will resort to the use of force to suppress them.
“A government that claims to exercise sovereignty on behalf of the people cannot treat the same people as enemies to be shooed off streets and parks by fierce-looking soldiers,’’ the party wrote.
The party called on President Jonathan to immediately withdraw the soldiers to mitigate the impact of the damage which his action had done to the psyche of the people of Lagos.