Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has said that those he called ‘protest contractors’ are making brisk businesses from protests in Abuja, Daily Trust reports.
Contributing to a debate on the protest staged against National Assembly, he said one of the most lucrative businesses in Abuja was to organize a protest.
“Let me recognize that we have problems and challenges in Nigeria. But I would limit myself to the issue of unemployment and poverty. Rising from this, some people have found a way of surviving. One way of surviving in Abuja is to organise protest. There are people are consider as protest contractors,” he said.
“What is happening is that some people go to government officials or governors who they believe are opposed to the National Assembly and collect a N1500 each for number of protesters and when they organize these young people, they pay them only N500 as in the case of today to come protest in the front of national assembly.”
“So each time I see them, I feel sorry for this country that some people are doing things they do not believe in. the issue of protesting today against constituency projects is to say the least very embarrassing,” he said.
Buttressing Ekweremadu’s position, Senator Attai Aidoko (PDP, Kogi) said over N10m was spent on the protest at the National Assembly.
“About N10m was spent to organize this protest,renting about 20 buses and about 200 people, doing T-Shirts for them, it would cost per head about N5000 multiply by 200 people about N10 million wasted for nothing,” he said.
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