Dozens of protesters on Tuesday stormed the headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Osogbo, Osun State.
The protesters, who were mainly students and armed with placards with various inscriptions, took to the security outfit’s office in the state capital to condemn what they called the indiscriminate shootings by its personnel.
Some of the inscriptions read, “NSCDC are we safe”; “NSCDC threatens our people in Osun”; and ”Stop brutality against Osun residents,” among others.
The students under the aegis of the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS) were led to the NSCDC headquarters by the group’s President, Moshood Yusuf.
They were, however, denied entry by armed personnel manning the entrance gate of the security agency’s office in the Oke Ayepe area of Osogbo.
“It is regrettable that the officers and the men of the corps that is known for decency, discipline, and patriotism have been turned to political tormentors in the state, and we have no choice than to cry to your good office before the people of the state begin to lose their lives in the hands of NSCDC Tactical Force in Osun,” said Yusuf.
“It is understandable that the NSCDC is under the supervision and control of Federal Ministry of Interior, being superintended by the former governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, … but we strongly believe that NSCDC, as a security outfit, must be completely excused as a willing tool to destabilise the state.”
The group’s president decried the alleged shootings by NSCDC personnel attached to the convoy of the immediate past governor of the state and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, in some parts of the state capital.
He called on the NSCDC authorities and the minister to verify their claims and investigate shootings with a view to ensuring that the culprits were sanctioned accordingly.
“For your information, we have not had it so terribly in recent times with this level of abuse and the involvement of (NSCDC) officers extremely complicating the political tension in the state,” Yusuf said
