#End bad governance: Security agencies fire gunshots, teargas as violence mar protest

By Stanley Onyekwere

The ongoing protest against bad governance in Nigeria has degenerated into an ugly situation around the Kugbo to Nyanya stretch of the Abuja-Keffi highway forcing security agents to resort  firing gunshots and teargas into the air after some hoodlums hauled missiles at them.

The suspected hoodlums, who had earlier overwhelmed some security agents deplored to mount check-points along the highway, and vandalised public utilities and looted people’s shops.

But, it took the intervention of the reinforced security agents spear headed by the military, who fired tear gas canisters and multiple gunshots, in a desperate an effort to prevent the protesters from gaining entrance into the Abuja city centre.

It was observed that the action yielded some significant result as they successfully pushed the hoodlums back to Mararaba and reopened the ever-buy road.

Meanwhile, the hoodlums resulted to descending on motorists with rage; smashing  their vehicle’s windscreens and injuring some in the process.

Also, commercial motorcyclists and their passengers were also not spared as some of hoodlums  who shifted their attention to Nyanya-Karu road and Mararaba, attacked and robbed them of their belongings for allegedly not joining in the protest.

Also, shop owners and business operators were not spared from the violence that erupted, as their places of trading  were attacked, and their goods looted.

Equally, security forces clashed with protesters in Airport road, Eagle square, Orozo and other parts of the territory.

In a related development, the FCT police command has denied the arrest of a photojournalist, Jide Oyekunle sighted around the eagle square, Abuja, during the protest.

Police in a statement from the command’s police police relations officer, SP Josephine Adeh, claimed that Oyekunle was rather taken away from the perceived unsafe environment for his own safety after being advised to leave where he was standing to a safer location and he declined, as some of the protesters had suddenly become violent.

According to the statement, while the protest is ongoing, it remains the duty of the police to protect lives and property.