Mr. Dino Melaye, an executive of the Anti-Corruption Network which organized the pro-Amaechi rally in Abuja yesterday has decried the treatment meted out to the protesters by the security forces in the Federal Capital Territory.
Melaye and his crowd of protesters were disbanded with teargas and hot water fired from an Armoured Personnel Carrier, and had to seek shelter at a nearby mosque.
Melaye said it was too bad that the Federal government was denying them their rights to peaceful protest.
His words: “We are going to submit a petition, we are peaceful Nigerians with women, some are pregnant and carrying children and we expected them to show civility and responsibility but lo and behold, the police shot sporadically, media men being chased, one camera was smeared and everybody is crying from teargas.
“In a democratic setting, we have the constitutional power to demonstrate to protest peacefully. We will not retreat, we will not surrender, the battle to salvage our country from these cankerworms of financial scavengers is a battle of no retreat, no surrender”.
“We will fight with the last drop of our blood, democracy will continue to be government of the people for the people and by the people and not government of the greedy for greedy by the greedy.
“It is now obvious more than ever that the Presidency and the PDP are behind the instability and impunity going on in Rivers State,” he added.
“We must do everything to rescue this country from the hands of these economic cankerworms,” he said. “There is intimidation, incessant arrests, threats and assassination attempts on my life. But for me, I am resolute because the battle to deliver this country from economic cankerworms, financial vultures and inept leadership, as I have repeatedly said, is a battle of no retreat, no surrender.”