Lagos locked down after protesters fired on, prez urges calm
Lagos was under a round-the-clock curfew on Wednesday enforced by police roadblocks, as smoke rose from a flashpoint area in Nigeria’s biggest city where soldiers shot at protesters the previous evening, witnesses said.
The Lagos state governor said 30 people were hurt in the shooting at a toll gate in the Lekki district, a focal point of nearly two weeks of nationwide protests against allegations of systematic police brutality.
Four witnesses said soldiers had fired the bullets and at least two people had been shot. Two of the witnesses said the lights were turned off at the gate shortly before the shooting began. One said he saw soldiers remove bodies.
In a Twitter post, the Nigerian Army said no soldiers were at the scene. Authorities imposed the curfew on Lagos on Tuesday after the governor said the protests had turned violent.
President Muhammadu Buhari, appealing for “understanding and calm”, said he was committed to providing justice for victims of brutality, and that police reforms also demanded by the demonstrators were gathering pace.
His statement, shared by his spokesman, did not refer to the shooting at the Lekki toll gate, from where a witness saw smoke rising on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, police set up roadblocks in Lagos and were not allowing vehicles to pass, although there were a few cars and people walking, two witnesses said.
They said some of the cops were armed and wore body armour, while many were in plain clothes. Witnesses also heard the sound of gunfire in the Okota and Ebute Metta areas of mainland Lagos. Thousands of Nigerians have demonstrated in protests that initially focused on a police unit, the special antirobbery squad, that rights groups had for years accused of extortion, harassment, torture and murders.
The unit was disbanded on October 11 but the protests have persisted with calls for law enforcement reforms.
Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu visit the victims of what he referred to as the “unfortunate shooting incident” in Lekki.