Police patrol Lagos after days of violent unrest
LAGOS: Barricades and police checkpoints dotted the empty streets of Lagos on Friday as authorities tried to restore order to Africa’s biggest city, under curfew following days of violent unrest.
Sporadic gunfire was heard on Friday morning but the centre of Nigeria’s economic hub appeared calmer by the afternoon, and Lagos governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced he was easing the curfew.
From yesterday, he said, “people can go out between 8am and 6pm”.
The shooting of peaceful protesters by security forces in Lagos on Tuesday triggered two days of unrest with shops and buildings looted and vandalised. Heavily armed police stopped a handful of cars left driving in the deserted streets on Friday while a few people tried to find their way home after the city was put under lockdown.
A warehouse was looted on Friday in Ojo, near Lagos, witnesses told reporters.
“They looted everything on site. They took everything they could lay their hands on,” a witness who asked to be identified as Rafiki told reporters.
Protests against police abuse first erupted in Nigeria on Oct 8 after a video of an officer allegedly killing a civilian went viral. Despite the disbanding of the police unit accused of brutality, the federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), protests spread and violence escalated.
Anger spread further after pictures and videos on social media showed security forces shooting at a crowd of around 1,000 protesters on Tuesday at Lekki toll gate, a key Lagos protest site. Amnesty International said 12 people were killed in the incident, with a total of 56 people dead across the country since demonstrations began.
President Muhammadu Buhari warned demonstrators in a televised address on Thursday not to “undermine national security” — while not directly addressing the Lekki shooting.
The days of unrest have risked seeing the message of the initial protests get drowned out as looters and vandals took advantage. But those involved insist the demonstrations will be just the start of broader changes.