LAGOS,
Nigeria
Several protesters were killed by Nigerian security forces in Lagos on Tuesday, Amnesty International said after witnesses reported armed men opened fire on demonstrators defying a curfew order.
“People were killed at the (Lekki)
tollgate by security forces,” Amnesty’s Nigeria spokesman Isa Sanusi told AFP,
in reference to a key protest site in the city.
He said the rights group was
“working on verifying how many”.
Witnesses told AFP that shots were
fired at the crowd of over 1,000 peaceful demonstrators to disperse them
several hours after the authorities declared an open-ended lockdown in Lagos in
the face of spiralling protests.
“We were all sitting down,
peacefully, and they shut down the lights and the billboards, everyone started
screaming,” a protester called Toye told AFP, asking that her full name not be
used.
“They came to us, but I don’t know
who it was. They were shooting, and everyone was running for his life.”
Another protester, Innocent, said he was helping to ferry the wounded to nearby hospitals.
“Currently I have two people that I
rush in my car, a woman and a guy, who are in very critical conditions,” he
said.
“I rushed two people already to
hospital. One was shot at the back, and one was shot at the stomach.”.
Scenes of people removing a bullet
from someone’s wound and pleading for help were broadcast in a live video by DJ
Switch, a popular disc jockey, to 150,000 Instagram viewers.
Earlier defiant protesters at the
scene had sung the national anthem and pledged to remain out on the streets
despite the stay-at-home order.
Anger over abuses by the police’s
loathed Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) erupted into widespread protests some
two weeks ago that drew thousands onto the streets.
Lagos state governor Babajide
Sanwo-Olu ordered the round-the-clock shutdown in the sprawling economic hub on
Tuesday, claiming the protests had “degenerated into a monster” as violence
flared in a string of cities.
“Criminals and miscreants are now
hiding under the umbrella of these protests to unleash mayhem,” he wrote on
Twitter, insisting that only essential workers should stay out on the streets.
“We will not watch and allow
anarchy in our dear state.”
As the tone hardened from the
authorities, Nigeria’s police chief ordered anti-riot units deployed around the
country.
“The force will henceforth exercise
the full powers of the law to prevent any further attempt on lives and property
of citizens,” a statement said.
Up until Tuesday some 18 people had
died in the demonstrations as clashes were reported between protesters and
assailants wearing civilian clothes.
Rights groups and demonstrators
have accused “thugs and sponsored hoodlums” of attacking the peaceful rallies
and seeking to discredit the protest movement.
Witnesses told AFP that a police station was set ablaze in the Orile Iganmu district of Lagos on Tuesday morning. They said police opened fire on protesters, wounding several.
In the capital Abuja, security
forces violently dispersed crowds during the day on Tuesday and thick black
smoke could be seen over the city.
Violence spread as well to the
largest northern city of Kano as hundreds of people went on a rampage, burning
vehicles and looting businesses according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
“The mob came near the school and
began assaulting parents who had come to pick up their children,” 35-year old
auto mechanic Sadiq Mohammed told AFP.
Police said 12 suspects were also
arrested in southern Benin City in connection with separate attacks on two
police facilities.
The government announced the
scrapping of the SARS unit and a raft of reforms over a week ago, but the bid
to placate the protesters has failed.
Officials have called for the
demonstrations to be suspended to give the authorities time to make good on
their pledges.
Nigeria — where the median age is
18 — is a tinderbox of profound economic and social grievances.
Around half of the population of
200 million is estimated to live in extreme poverty and unemployment is
widespread among the youth.
Africa’s biggest oil producer is
currently facing a recession as the fall in crude prices sparked by the
coronavirus pandemic has battered government finances.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce said
in a statement that estimated economic losses in the past 12 days were at 700
billion naira ($1.8 billion dollars, 1.5 billion euros).
On Tuesday, the Senate called on
President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the protests “as a matter
of urgency”.
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