No fewer than 13 persons were killed and many others injured on Thursday (yesterday) when #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests kicked off across the country.
Amnesty International reported that the killings occurred in Suleja, Niger State, where six people were killed and dozens severely wounded; Maiduguri, Borno State where four people were killed; and Kaduna, where three lost their lives.
In Suleja, the victims were said to have been killed while security operatives struggled to dislodge a group of protesters who mounted barricades on a section of the Abuja-Kaduna highway, stopping the flow of vehicular traffic for hours.
It was learnt that some policemen, who were around the barricade, could not control the youths who outnumbered them.
However, a reinforcement team was said to have been sent to the scene where pandemonium occurred.
Vanguard reported that among those killed was one Yahaya Nda Isah, a resident of Hassan Dalatu Road, Suleja, who was hit by a stray bullet.
In Maiduguri, Borno State, four persons said to have been the staff of Kime filling station around Bolori junction of the metropolis, lost their lives to the protest.
In Kaduna where three where three persons were reportedly killed, an eye witness said the number of protesters, mostly youths and the unemployed, which had outnumbered security operatives, marched from the Rigasa area and from the Abakwa end, towards the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, the official residence and office of the state governor.
It was also gathered that clashes between the police and protesters were recorded in Abuja, Delta and Bayelsa states, but there were no casualties.
Responding to the allegation of deadly brutality, the spokesman for the Niger State police command, Mr Wasiu Abiodun, said chaos broke out in Tafa local government council secretariat where he alleged that miscreants looted, vandalised and partly set the building ablaze.
He said vehicles were damaged and burnt, while security agencies responded, made arrest and dispersed the hoodlums.
He denied that there was any loss of life in the process as protesters were dispersed with the use of minimum force.
However, Abiodun admitted that some persons were mildly injured during stampede adding that they were taken to the nearby medical facilities for treatment.
Meanwhile, the country director of Amnesty International, Mr Isa Sanusi, urged the Nigerian authorities to investigate the incidents impartially and effectively and ensure that security personnel suspected of responsibility for the alleged deadly use of force are held to account through fair trial.
The organisation also expressed concern over the Nigerian authorities’ “growing hostility to dissent” and the “relentless repression of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”
“Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty,” Sanusi said in a statement.
The organisation called on the Nigerian government to take concrete steps to address the impact of recent reforms on economic, social and cultural rights, including people’s rights to health and education.
“All those arrested for taking part in the protests must be released immediately and unconditionally. Authorities must also end the rampant violations of the people’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” Sanusi added.
Similarly, Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) blamed the federal government over poor handling of the protests across the country.
In a statement by the national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA held that the federal government grossly mismanaged the protests by spending weeks attempting to muzzle and stifle fundamental rights of citizens to protest peacefully.
The organisation urged the federal government to implement the demands of the protesters and salvage the value of the naira, check the uncontrolled inflation, check the unprecedented hike in the pump price of petroleum products, and fight corruption.
It also asked it to reduce the costs of governance by pruning down the number of ministers and aides, reorganise the ministry for humanitarian affairs and poverty Alleviation and fight terrorism with all vigour instead of the dubious ways that the counter terrorism war is being waged.
