Earlier today, I led other principal officers of the Senate to receive security briefings from the Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Mohammed and the Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi on the protests being staged in some parts of the country.

We invited the IGP and the DSS DG for the briefing to enable the leadership of the Senate to be properly informed of the situation. But before then, we have been reading in the media, both Electronics and Print what has been going on.

We have been talking, discussing, consulting with our colleagues in the Senate, in the National Assembly generally and people on the Executive side of government and outside of government on how best we can approach this issue, so that we are able to bring it to an end.

The Senate has so far taken two motions with respect to #EndSARS , one of which is a declaration of support to legitimate and peaceful protest to #EndSARS and the second one with about five other far reaching resolutions.

We are however not in support of any violent protest by anyone. We believe that the #EndSARS protest started very genuinely and those who started it are Patriots who wanted to see change and change was initiated immediately with the dissolution of SARS.

Subsequently, five demands of the protesters were accepted by the government generally because we believe that those demands are legitimate and we will continue to insist that the Federal Government must implement those demands it accepted from the protesters.

However, the time has come for the protests to stop and I want to appeal to all Nigerian political and religious leaders to stand up with a view to prevailing on the protesters to allow peace a chance.

I want to thank all Nigerians for the prayers and I want to urge opinion leaders and political leaders across the spectrum that this is of utmost concern to all of us.

All leaders, regardless of their political affiliations, regardless of our religious passuasion, regardless of our geo-political locations, must stand up and ensure that these protests come to an end...

...because the protests are now taking a different dimension from the originally conceived protest by those who meant well by asking for SARS to be disbanded.

Those that are going about protesting have shown clearly that they have no affiliation, no relationship whatsoever with the original #EndSARS protest.

I will take this opportunity to urge all well meaning Nigerians that this is our country, that everyone must show interest in its survival and in its peace.

This is a country that we have to ensure that it works for all of us. People have the right to say this is not the way they want to go once it is a legitimate way to express themselves through peaceful protest...

...but we must never allow ourselves to be taken in the wrong direction of violent protest like we have witnessed in some parts of the country.