From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The third day of the end bad governance protest turned bloody as security personnel opened fire and teargas canisters at protesters at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
The security operatives had insisted that the protesters flouted the directives of the FCT administration to demonstrate inside the stadium.
Recall that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) authorities had secured a court order confining the protesters to MKO Abiola National Stadium.
But when security operatives suspected to be operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrived at the area, they resorted to shooting at persons in the vicinity, including journalists, damaging the vehicle of one of the reporters.
Earlier, the FCT Deputy Commissioner of Police, in charge of the operation, Ishaku Ishaku, explained that security personnel did not fired tear gas canisters at the demonstrators on Thursday and Friday.
“The court order is very clear. The court had confined protesters to the premises of the Moshood Abiola Stadium.
“If they are law-abiding, they should obey the court order. Well, we have not tear-gassed anybody within the premises of the national stadium.”
Meanwhile, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), condemned what it called the ‘brutal, reckless and unprofessional conduct’ of the FCT Police Command, during the third day by detaining several individuals who gathered at Moshood Abiola Stadium to protest on Saturday.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement yesterday, contended that “these illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional arrests occurred just outside the stadium, the designated area for the protest.
Initially, organisers sought permission to use Eagle Square but were denied access.”
Onwubiko said: “We in HURIWA, wholeheartedly condemn these despicable, reprehensible and criminal approach of the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force especially in the Federal Capital Territory just as we are demanding that the Inspector General of Police and the Police Service Commission must identify the trigger-happy police operatives in Abuja.
and Suleja who shot live bullets at protesters who did not pose any danger to the lives of these brutes in police uniform.
“We condemn the Kaduna State police commissioner who said that henceforth protesters will be treated as violators of the law.
“HURIWA said the poor approach to law enforcement devoid of any kind of respect for the fundamental rights of citizens shows that there is an immediate need for comprehensive reforms of the current security architecture in Nigeria with specific reference to the Nigeria Police Force.
“These campaigns of brutality and dehumanisation of protesters in Nigeria by the police will have significant repercussions if not now but in the near future.
“These unprofessional and criminal conducts of the police seen extensively all over the country will reignite another #ENDSARS PROTESTS that may take the security services unaware unless those police operatives who shot at protesters are identified, prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the laws of Nigeria.
“The police operatives behaved so crudely without any regard to the fundamental principles of human rights and the rules of engagement.”