BEVERLY HILLS, October 25, (THEWILL) – Popular Nigerian actor, Williams Uchemba, says that the #EndSARS protests against police brutality lasted for too long.
The actor disclosed this on Sunday when speaking with The Punch saying that the protests began to lose its focus, as it stayed too long and many celebrities were pressured to support the movement.
He said: “It is about control. That is why you have brakes in your car. It is to know when to stop or slow down, and when to accelerate. At a point, the protests got out of control. They started doing parties at the tollgate. We were all asking for the same thing – basic amenities.
“I know, constitutionally, you cannot use curfews to stop a protest. But maybe, we could have tried to work with the government just for that day. There was peer pressure on most of my colleagues. I know some of them that were pressurized to go out on the streets, even when the government had given us airtime. The pressure was more from the fans. ”
Uchemba disclosed that the government responded swiftly to the demands of the protesters and the protesters could have just concluded the protest with the candlelight vigil they did to commemorate their fallen comrades.
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He said: “We had it at some point and I was telling people that the climax of the protest would have been the candlelight vigil. The next day should have been about strategy. It should have been about ‘what is the next thing? Now, we have those people where we want them’.
“Because we already had that, we should have just not overshot. We should have waited for them to completely implement everything we were asking for regarding police brutality. They met us halfway on the #5for5 demands.”
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