A 14-year-old drink seller was killed by stray bullet during a protest by Yoruba Nation agitators in Lagos on Saturday.
It was reported that the victim, who sold yoghurt, was displaying her drinks at a shop around the protest venue when a shot allegedly fired by one of the security officers seeking to disperse the protesters hit her.
The young girl, identified as Jumoke, had her stomach ripped open by the bullet.
READ ALSO:
Police deny killing teenager at Yoruba Nation protest in Lagos
Miyetti Allah insists on revival of pre-colonial grazing reserves
Igboho’s lawyer writes SSS over house raid, demands N500m in damages
The ICIR had reported how police in the state stormed the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota, where the protesters converged, fired gunshots and drenched them with water cannons on Saturday morning.
Commissioner of Police in the state Hakeem Odumosu had arrived at the venue with his men before the protesters.
He was addressing journalists when the placard-carrying protesters, who chanted different secession songs for the Yoruba Nation, began to trickle in.
Odumosu said he was at the venue with security officials to enforce his earlier order that the protest should not hold.
He explained that although the protesters had promised to hold a peaceful protest, he refused to grant them permission to stage the rally because of the monumental destruction and killings recorded in the state during the #EndSARS protest.
No sooner had Odumosu left the venue than his officers dispersed the protesters.
The police also reportedly arrested some of the protesters.
A leading figure among the secessionists Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, was not among the protesters after operatives of the State Security Service attacked his house on Thursday. He is reported to have gone into hiding.
The Nigerian government had extradited the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu two days before it arraigned him at an Abuja Federal High Court on Tuesday, June 29.
Kanu is seeking the secession of the country’s South-East from Nigeria to form an independent country known as Biafra.
The court remanded him in the custody of the State Security Services (SSS) and adjourned his case till July 26 and 27.
Kanu is facing an 11-count charge of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism, and illegal possession of firearms.
He jumped bail in 2017 and fled Nigeria.
The Nigerian government is also accusing him of masterminding several attacks on public facilities and killing security operatives in the South-East.
Agitations for self-determination among ethnic nationalities have peaked this year following the misrule and clannishness that allegedly characterized President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
Besides accusations of being nepotistic, Buhari has been accused of pampering terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other criminals in the North, while his government hounds aggrieved citizens in the South.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].