A conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and development professional cum security analyst, Emmanuel Bombande, believes if the #FixTheCountry protests, planned earlier, had been allowed, the recent dastardly happenings in Ejura could have been averted.

Recent clashes between the military and the youth of Ejura who were protesting the death of Ibrahim Kaaka Mohammed, a youth activist, left 2 civilians dead and many injured after the military fired live ammunition in order to disperse the crowd that had gathered.

Sharing his thoughts on the matter Friday on the AM Show, Emmanuel Bombande, also a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stressed how holding back the youth and preventing them from expressing themselves by way of demonstrations, has been inimical to the State by way of fostering the chaotic scenes witnessed in recent days in Ejura.

According to Mr. Bombande, "I postulate that if the #FixTheCountry youth campaign group had gone ahead with the police understanding exactly that protests are permissible in democratic societies and that they were allowed to protest, that would have let out the type of pressure that has been building and we probably would not have had Ejura."

He added, "When you prevent something from happening because you are suppressing young people from expressing themselves, what then begins to happen is you see a buildup and that buildup is like a pressure cooker in which there has to be a vent to let out the pressure.

And to that extent, therefore, Mohammed Kaaka, in continuing his activism, might not have arrived at the stage in which, the circumstances in which, he was killed could have happened - let alone now for the security response to have killed two more people."