The Nigerian Police Force, on Thursday, reaffirmed its commitment to upholding law and order, ensuring public safety, and preventing chaos nationwide as the #EndBadGovernance protests unfolded across various parts of the country.
During an appearance on Channels Television’s “The August Protests” program, Force Public Relations Officer Muyiwa Adejobi clarified that police personnel did not use live ammunition against peaceful protesters.
However, he noted that tear gas was deployed to disperse “unruly hoodlums” who had hijacked the demonstrations, causing chaos and destruction in the streets.
“To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think any policeman has fired any live ammunition. Everything you are seeing now is tear gas.
“We have seen the unruly attitude of certain hoodlums who have taken over the streets. We are still engaging them with tear gas. No live ammunition yet,” Adejobi said.
Curfew has been imposed in states like Borno, Kano and Yobe where rampaging hoodlums reportedly burnt public properties and looted private assets.
“It is not what we planned for again. It is not what they painted the thing to be. This is a different scenario and we need to nip it in the bud before it gets escalated and turn to anarchy,” said the Force spokesman.
“The police and other security agencies will not allow anarchy in this country. The lesson we learnt during EndSARS is still fresh in our memories. And that is enough for us,” he said, adding that “it won’t be too palatable for us if this continues for 10 days”.
- We Value Every Life — Police
The Force spokesman said the police value the life of every single Nigerian and the protests have been engaged professionally.
“No occasion so far in Abuja has warranted the use of live ammunition. All so far is the use of tear gas. We value the souls of Nigerians; a soul is important to us, and we don’t want to lose any soul. We are mindful of that and we are going to engage every situation professionally.
“If it is peaceful, we are ready to move with them. We have deployed our ambulances to even follow protesters where necessary but where they want to be violent, we know what to do; we are going to cut their clothes according to their sizes, we are going to give it back to them the way they want it.
“If they want to run down the government, we will not fold our hands to see this system being run down.”
He said hoodlums will be identified and dealt with decisively according to the provisions of the law.
“Section 40 of the Constitution has given us rights to assembly, association and the like but Section 45 has stated clearly that on no account should allow (violence). No fundamental human right is absolute and this is what we are saying,” he said.
Propagated on social media, the nationwide protests against economic hardship started on Thursday, August 1, 2024, and is scheduled to stretch till August 10 across all states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital Abuja.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windows.
The police, military and the Department of State Services had warned against Kenya-styled protests. Politicians, who surmised that the planned rallies might end up like the EndSARS demonstrations of October 2020, have continued to appeal to youths to shelve the planned rallies but the young people have been unfazed.
