KADUNA (Sundiata Post) – Governor Sani Uba of Kaduna State has gifted ₦100,000 and smartphones to the released #EndBadGovernance protesters.
The governor promised to also rehabilitate the 39 released protesters from Kaduna and empower them if they turn a new leaf.
The Secretary to Kaduna State Government Abdulkadir Meyere who spoke on behalf of Governor Sani disclosed that the governor had directed him to collect the credentials of those who have completed their tertiary education.
“The Governor promised that some of them will be given start-up capitals to commence trading, others will be taught skills and some will be given employment,” he said.
The SSG also noted that the Kaduna State Government will be tracking the activities and conduct of all 39 released #Endbadgovernance protesters to ensure they are of good behaviour “before the promised benefits are extended to them.
He said, “The state government has taken the details of the released detainees including contact addresses, telephone numbers, and names of their next of kin, for easy tracking and monitoring”.
According to him, the released #EndBadGovernance protesters were all medically examined and given psycho-social counselling on the need to change for the better to be useful to themselves and society at large.
“Both Islamic and Christian religious leaders preached to them to embrace the teachings of their faiths and to avoid bad company, so as to benefit from God’s blessings here and in the hereafter,” he said.
The protests took place in August owing to the harsh economic conditions in Nigeria. It was largely peaceful but later morphed into a violent demonstration in some parts of the country with properties destroyed.
Months after the protests, the Federal Government arraigned some of the demonstrators on a 10-count charge. But the move was greeted with outrage after some of them were spotted as minors.
That prompted President Bola Tinubu to ask for their release.