President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the #EndSARS protesters in Lagos for burning 200 buses bought by Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State.

He therefore said his government would arrest them, try them, give them very bad publicity, and then jail them.

The President made the comments on Friday evening in an interview on NTA.

Adamu Sambo, the interviewer, had asked him: “Just recently, Your Excellency, you read a riot act warning those killing security personnel and burning critical national assets that they will be treated in a language they understand.  That’s a coded statement, what do you really mean, Your Excellency.”

The President replied: “Well, what I mean, how can you go to police station, chase the police that are there, loot the armoury and burn the place? What do you want to achieve?

“Go and open prison and allow criminals that have been tried through the legal system and let them loose on the society. And then how can government sit aside and allow this confusion to be perpetrated? All they need is confusion and no government can allow confusion.

“Look at the #EndSARS incident in Lagos. The previous Governor of Lagos State bought 200 buses to compliment the transportation in Lagos, and he built a complex for railways, but they went and burnt them. The present Governor made an album and came to see me. I said thank you very much. I took the album, put it in my archives and I told him to tell the Lagosians to walk because we don’t have the money after when you lose 200 buses, some people to come and burn it [sic], so let them walk.”

Sambo then asked, “So do you mean fire for fire?”

“More than that. We will arrest them, try them, give them very bad publicity, and then jail them, so that people will know that if they misbehave they will not get away with it.”

The question Buhari was asked was in relation to those burning critical government assets and killing security personnel. His response however showed that the #EndSARS protests were still fresh in his mind.

In an earlier interview on Arise TV on Thursday morning, Buhari had referred to the #EndSARS protests as an attempt to get him out of power. The latest interview came a day to the June 12 protests on Saturday.