June 13, 2021

The protesters who had thronged the streets of Abuja as a counterfoil to the Buhari-Must-Go protests earlier announced to take place across major cities of Nigeria took turns to tell reporters that they were promised N1000 to participate in the pro-Buhari protests but were not paid by their hirers according to the agreement.

A counter protest by supporters of Muhammadu Buhari to mark the June 12 Democracy turned messy in Abuja as some protesters resorted to brickbats over none payment of N1000 promised them by the organisers.

The protesters who had thronged the streets of Abuja as a counterfoil to the Buhari-Must-Go protests earlier announced to take place across major cities of Nigeria took turns to tell reporters that they were promised N1000 to participate in the pro-Buhari protests but were not paid by their hirers according to the agreement.

The protests and counter-protests rocked major cities with Lagos and Abuja recording the most turnout. In some states, police were professional and merely allowed the protesters.

However, Police fired teargas and detained several demonstrators in Lagos and Abuja.

Anger over mass kidnappings-for-ransom, a decade-long Islamist insurgency and a crackdown on protesters in Lagos last October has fuelled demands for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to tackle violence and insecurity.

There was a heavy police presence in the country’s two major cities as several hundred people gathered to protest on Democracy Day, which marks Nigeria’s move to civilian rule more than 20 years ago.

Reuters witnesses in Lagos and the capital Abuja saw police shooting their guns into the air and firing teargas into the crowds to disperse the demonstrators, who held placards and chanted “Buhari must go”.

“We cannot continue like this … all the bad governance must stop,” said protester Samson Okafor in Lagos, where teargas canisters smouldered in the street as police shouted at demonstrators to leave the scene.

Officers were also seen smashing mobile phones confiscated from protesters, some of whom criticised the government’s decision to suspend access to Twitter after the social media platform removed a recent post by Buhari.

Abuja police spokesman Yusuf Mariam said officers in the capital made no arrests but had “restored calm” after people gathered who were “inciting public disturbance and breaching public peace.”

He did not comment on the Lagos protests, and other police spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Before fleeing under clouds of teargas, demonstrators in Abuja marched with banners reading “#Buhari Must Go” and other slogans denouncing rising insecurity and the country’s 33.3% unemployment rate.

Some also carried placards demanding the release of Ibrahim Zakzaky, the imprisoned leader of banned Nigerian Shi’ite group the Islamic Movement of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the protests in Nigeria top Twitter charts across the world, trending at number one worldwide for most part of Saturday despite Twitter suspension in Nigeria.

Using VPN, many Nigerians tweeted pictures and messages from the major protest centres sharing

videos and pictures with the global community.

By Our Reporter, with Agency reports