Four teenagers and a would-be bride were said to have been killed by security agents during the #EndBadGovernance protest in Kano and Zaria.
One Isma’il Muhammad, 18, was also gunned down yesterday by a soldier in Samaru, Zaria, in Kaduna State.
The protest, which started on Thursday, August 1, has resulted in the killing of many protesters allegedly by security operatives.
The Kano incidents happened at Kofar Nassarawa, Kurnar Asabe and Rjiyar Lemo.
Speaking to the Daily Trust, his mother, Aisha Isah Babah, said: “He left home for his business place. Worried that he didn’t come for his launch, I became uncomfortable. I did not call him nor did I talk to anybody about my worries. Little did I know that he was killed.”
She said she left everything to God as the deceased was an orphan and she cannot fight to get justice for him.
The mother of one 15-year-old Kashifu Abdullahi Gyaranya, who was also killed during the protest, Maryam Sani, said: “As he was leaving home, I asked him where he was going to, but he told me that he was going outside to see his friends. I warned him not to join the protest. He said he would not. Only for me to be called and informed that he was killed. And that is all.”
A bride to-be, Firdausi Muhammad, was reportedly killed by a stray bullet, allegedly from the rifle of a policeman in Rijiyar Lemo, during the protest on Saturday. She was to get married next week.
One Umar Abubakar Hausawa was also said to have been killed by a police stray bullet during the protest at Kofar Nassarawa the same day.
His brother, Rabiu Abubakar, said: “When he was told that our younger brothers had joined the protesters, he was angry and told our mother that he was going to call them back. That was how he went and met his untimely death there.”
Reacting, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa said that the police tried to maintain law and order in Rijiyar Lemo as the youths of the area tried to overpowered them.
“Actually, what happened was you know the Kano State Government has imposed curfew in the state so the youths who were in their hundreds tried to trespass into people’s shops to steal their goods. So, our men tried to disperse them but instead of them to go back to their houses they turned violent, and started throwing stones at our personnel”.
He said that the situation warranted the reinforcement of the more personnel in order to maintain law and order.
He said the law has allowed the police to defend themselves.
He said that the command had launched an investigation into the cases to ascertain what.
In a similar incident, a 18-year-old secondary school leaver, Isma’il Muhammad, was said to have been shot dead at about 9am on Tuesday by a soldier on patrol in Samaru, Zaria.
Samaru community is a host to hundreds of staff and students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
It was gathered that Muhammad was shot dead at his residence at Sarkin Pawa Street, by a soldier who was on patrol, alongside his colleagues.
The deceased’s mother, Zainab Sani, said he was playing with his friends and a brother in front of their house, “but when they sighted the soldiers coming towards their direction with one of them pointing his gun at them, they ran into their house and shut the gate.
She demanded that the soldier be brought to justice.
The GOC 1 Division, Major General M.L.D. Saraso, visited the residence of the deceased and met with the bereaved family.
Addressing youths in the area after he interacted with the family of the deceased, Saraso said he visited to commiserate with the family and the community over the incident.
He assured that the incident would be thoroughly investigated, asking any community member with substantive evidence to forward for necessary action.
General Saraso described the incident as “unfortunate”, and urged the community to live in peace and always be law-abiding.
A coalition of 13 civil society organisations (CSOs) yesterday urged the federal government to prosecute security personnel found culpable in killing of peaceful demonstrators during the hunger protests across the country.
The CSOs made the demand in a joint statement.
The 13 CSOs are Accountability Lab Nigeria, BudgIT Foundation, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, #FixPolitics, Global Rights, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Sesor Empowerment Foundation, TechHer, Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), and Yiaga Africa.
The CSOs said failure to prosecute the security agents involved in the killing of protesters would send a bad signal on President Bola Tinubu’s message on dialogue.
They said the president failed to acknowledge that the security forces’ response to protesters had resulted in the extra-judicial killing of several protesters, and equally missed the opportunity to assure the nation that their perpetrators would be held accountable.
They said: “The president has expressed the government’s openness to dialogue with protesters on these demands. It is therefore our candid advice that this is pursued by officials and representatives of both sides with sincerity of purpose.
“This should begin with an immediate release of all arrested peaceful protesters and sanctions against security agents who attacked unharmed peaceful protesters. We remind the government that should security forces continue to aggravate protesters, it may become difficult to broker dialogue.
“It is our recommendation that representatives of the National Peace Committee and reputable civil society groups serve as facilitators and observers of this dialogue process and its outcomes”, they said.
PRP demands probe of Bauchi incident
The Bauchi State chapter of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) yesterday demanded the probe of Monday’s killing of a protester by a security operative in Azare.
The security operative was reportedly captured gunning down the protester.
The PRP, in a statement by its State Secretary, Abdulazeez Haruna, urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Police Service Commission (PSC) and “other relevant bodies to launch an immediate investigation into this incident and bring those responsible to justice.”
The Bauchi State Police Command’s spokesman, Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, in a statement yesterday, said: “The command emphatically debunks this video and the accompanying news publications.
“These claims are untrue and misleading. No such incident was recorded by the command at the mentioned location or any other part of the state. The video is fabricated, and the public needs to know that the police were not involved in any such incident.”
Wakil said the command had constituted a team of investigators comprising seasoned detectives to aggregate all allegations, suspicions and insinuations from various sources.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Auwal Musa Mohammed, urged media practitioners to maintain their commitment to ethical investigative journalism, seeking the truth and promoting national cohesion and patriotism in Nigeria.
