Charly Boy reiterates, by law, police can’t stop hunger protests, backs youths planning mega march in August, says “I will join”

Charly Boy reiterates, by law, police can’t stop hunger protests, says “I believe in youths”

By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor

Nollywood veteran Charly Boy (Charles Oputa), also a veteran protester, has expressed support for youths  planning countrywide protests against hunger from August 1 to 10, promising to join the march, and insisting that, by law, the police cannot stop protests in a democracy.

But he advocated for the protest to be peaceful throughout, stressing “there are a lot of things that they can peacefully do that can send powerful messages. Nobody needs to resort to violence.”

A jittery police force – whose Inspector General is Kayode Egbetokun, a Bola Tinubu boy) – on Monday issued a statement that banned the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shi’ite Muslims, from holding a process in Abuja to mark the 2024 Islamic calendar day of Ashura.

Activists see it as an insight into how the police will carry out their already reported plan to stop the looming protest in August that the organisers enthuse would build on the gains of the EndSars struggle in 2020, over which the ECOWAS Court last week found the government guilty of violating the human rights of protesters.

Charly Boy insisted that, regardless of the latest police threat, he believes Nigerian youths possess the ability to take back their country from bad rulers who have stolen the country dry.

“I am fully in support of whatever the young people will do to recover their stolen country. I have been a fan of the youths for so many decades. I’m in support of anything they can do to end this quagmire,” he told Daily Post.

“Until that day, I will sit in my house watching. When they finally say enough is enough and they mean it, their father will be in the front. That time I will know that they are now serious. ‘I go know say their mumu don belefu’ them.

“We are all shopping from the same market. We are all feeling it. Do you think I’m happy with the situation? Do you think I’m happy with the environment? It is affecting me also.

“Police can’t stop any protest. The only thing that can stop protest is fear in the young people, that is the only hindrance. It is our civil right to protest. As long as we are doing it in a civil and non-violent way, it is very much allowed.

“One day, them go wake-up in country and them go regret all the stealing and oppressions that they have done.

“The federal lawmakers that are collecting billions of naira when people are suffering, the young Nigerians know them. They know their addresses, they know their girlfriends, they know where the lawmakers travel to. When the heat starts, they will know.

“I will advise as a father that the protest should be peaceful. There are a lot of things that they can peacefully do that can send powerful messages. Nobody needs to resort to violence.

“We see what is happening in Kenya, we can do better. I have always believed in the exceptional youths of this country. I know that the day they will say enough is enough, it will be enough.”

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