In Nigeria, citizens took to the streets in almost all parts of the West African country to express their grievances and anger over the insecurity, hardship, and inflation as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy by the government.
In Abuja capital of Nigeria, the protest which started peacefully on Thursday, with people chanting slogan ” End bad governance, we are hungry,” but later turned to violent when members of the Nigeria Police Forces fired teargas and shot in the air in order to diapers the hundreds of protesters most of them youth.
The protestors resisted the police teargas and kept picking up the teargas and throwing back to the police.
Fatima Kabir, a young female in an exclusive interview with Iran Press while the police were firing the teargas said: “We were doing a peaceful protest, people are being killed everyday in states of Zamfara, Katsina, Abuja and Kaduna. We were peacefully protesting, but they (police) are throwing teargas. We want to know why are they doing this to us?”
Another youth who talked to Iran Press said “I am not scared of any police. I am full Nigerian. The police started the violence. They are attacking us, the police started the violence.” Many among the protestors in Abuja have been arrested by the police.In Niger, a neighboring state to Abuja, at least six protesters have been killed when police opened fire with live bullets.Also in Kaduna State, three people were confirmed killed by police during the protest.
In Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria, a 24-hour curfew has been declared amid the ongoing hunger protests across the nation. Spokesman for the Command, Nahum Kenneth Daso, who announced this in a statement on Thursday, said the curfew was on the basis of security concern following the bomb explosion of Wednesday night which killed 19 people.
Heavy gunshots were heard in Biogbolo community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in Southern Nigeria as crisis erupted on Thursday after a group of protesters from the community, mainly youths, who were opposed to the hunger attacked the hardship demonstrators marching on the Mbiama/Yenagoa road.
Different groups of angry Nigerians said the peaceful protests meant to call attention of President Bola Ahmad Tinubu to take serious action to tackle the country’s problem, will continue for ten days.
