#EndSARS: Minister begs Naira Marley to halt planned protest

The minister of Youths and Sports development, Sunday Dare, on Monday night urged popular Nigerian singer, Naira Marley, to stop mass action scheduled to protest the excesses of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

In the past 72 hours, many Nigerian celebrities have lent their voices to the campaign for the total dissolution of the police unit.

This is owing to reported cases of extra-judicial killings, extortion, harassment and other vices perpetrated by the operatives.

Following the agitations on social media, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, banned some police units, including SARS from operating on the roads.

Meanwhile, Nigerians seem to be unsatisfied with the ban because similar restrictions and the disbandment of the police unit announced before Sunday have not been implemented.

Naira Marley, during an Instagram live session on his official handle on Monday, opposed calls to disband SARS. Instead, he called for a protest.

The 26-year-old argued that ending SARS is not the problem just because of a ‘‘few bad eggs’’.

‘‘I don’t think EndSARS is the problem. It’s not about EndSARS, what are you talking about EndSARS? If you end SARS, the police are going to shoot or someone else with a gun is still going to shoot,” he said.

“You need to stop the shooting, it’s not about ending SARS. Like to be honest, there are actually a lot of SARS that are actually doing their work. Not all police are bad.”

On Monday evening, he announced that the protest will start from 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

“So 9am tomorrow we move. 2nd toll gate

Peaceful protest No vandalism, no fights and no stealing,” he wrote via his official twitter account.

However, a few hours after the post was made, the minister begged that the singer should stop the protest.

He assured that the federal government will address the grievances.

“I urge you and other youth not to embark upon any protest. Your grievances are being addressed at the highest level of government. As the Minister in charge of youth I know this is an issue that must be tackled. Government is doing just that,” Mr Dare wrote in response to the singer’s tweet.