Nigerian police break up revolution protest

LAGOS: Nigerian security forces yesterday fired tear gas as they broke up a protest calling for “revolution” against misrule in the country after arresting the high-profile organizer. Several dozen demonstrators gathered in the face of a heavy security deployment near the national stadium in the economic capital Lagos chanting for the release of former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore, video broadcast live by local media showed.

The footage showed security forces firing tear gas to disperse the peaceful protest. A protester told AFP that officers made several arrests and fired live amunition to disperse the crowd, wounding at least two people. “Police officers and soldiers were shooting indiscriminantly, we have at least two people I saw who were shot in the leg,” Femi Adeyeye, an activist at the demonstration said. A spokesman for Lagos police told AFP he did not have details on the unrest or detention of any protesters.

Sowore, a fierce critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, was arrested over the weekend after announcing the “#RevolutionNow” protests across the country. Nigeria’s security services said Sowore had “crossed the line” and was threatening public safety. “We cannot allow any person or group to foment chaos or fan the embers of revolution,” spokesman Peter Afunaya said on Sunday. Former military ruler Buhari, who won a second four-year term in February, faces challenges including an Islamist insurgency, a fragile economy and rife corruption.

Sowore, who runs a news website Sahara Reporters that highlights alleged graft, came a distant tenth at the polls but managed to stir interest in his anti-establishment message. A number of prominent Nigerians, including Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, condemned his arrest. Soyinka in a statement carried by local media described the move as a “travesty and violation of the fundamental rights of citizens” reminiscent of the ironfisted rule of military dictator Sani Abacha in the 1990s.