Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has called for an end to nationwide demonstrations against police brutality, but failed to directly mention the fatal shooting of peaceful protesters.
In a televised address on Thursday night – his first public appearance since security forces were accused of killing at least 12 people in Lagos on Tuesday – Buhari called on protesters to “resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos”.
He added: “For you to do otherwise will amount to undermining national security and law and order … Under no circumstances would this be tolerated.”
According to Amnesty International, security forces and soldiers shot live ammunition into crowds gathered in the Lekki area of Lagos, in defiance of a government curfew, to protest against police brutality.
However, Buhari did not agree to widespread demands for an investigation of the killings.
The army said reports its soldiers were at the scene and shot protesters were false. On Thursday, an army spokesperson said that a wave of online footage of the shooting had been manipulated.
Since the killings, unrest has spread across the country, with vandalism by groups of armed young men, and reports of armed groups setting up checkpoints and extorting civilians.
A 24-hour curfew imposed by the Lagos government left streets empty and businesses shuttered. Sporadic gunshots could be heard across large parts of the city, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from Ikoyi Correctional Center. Prisons and police stations around the country have been targeted by protesters over the past two weeks as dismay and anger at authorities has grown.
Nigeria’s government recently disbanded the special anti-robbery squad (Sars), a notorious police unit, in response to one of the country’s most forceful protest movements in decades. Thousands of mainly young people have marched against the unit and police brutality.
Years of past announcements to “dissolve, “reform” or “overhaul” Sars has left many cynical that the government’s recent measures are adequate. A new unit replacing Sars, the Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT), has also been the focus of protests.
The protests and clampdown have captured international attention. On Wednesday the UN secretary general, António Guterres, condemned “the violent escalation on 20 October in Lagos which resulted in multiple deaths and caused many injuries”.
The US Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, also joined in the condemnation of the killings. “The Nigerian government must urgently investigate reports of brutality at the hands of the security forces,” Raab said, adding that he was “alarmed by widespread reports of civilian deaths”.
Yet in his address Buhari dismissed the international condemnation as hasty. The international community should “seek to know all the facts available before taking a position or rushing to judgment and making hasty pronouncements”, he said.
Twenty-four-hour curfews have been announced in 10 Nigerian states in recent days, effectively shutting down many protests across the country. In numerous cities, groups of young men wielding machetes, clubs and weapons have attacked the #EndSars protesters, including in the capital, Abuja.
Anger at police abuses against demonstrators and separate attacks by armed groups has fuelled further unrest, with several reported incidents of burning and vandalising at police stations, government buildings and businesses.
Chioma Agwuegbo, a youth activist, said Buhari, as head of the army, was responsible for ensuring that they were held accountable for their abuses. “This is the commander in chief of the federal republic of Nigeria. The army, everyone, answers to him.”
Government officials had not treated the protest movement “with the seriousness or urgency it requires”, she said. “Sars has been overhauled, dissolved, disbanded, all other synonyms, in the last five years. These promises must have clear timelines and clear frameworks for accountability to citizens. There’s no trust. And the government has not tried enough to build that trust.”
