In an unusual move, police officers distributed sachets of water and biscuits to protesters in Lagos on Tuesday as thousands marched to protest the current economic hardship facing Nigerians.
The protests organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress is taking place across several cities nationwide.
On Tuesday morning, the protesters began their marches from the Labour House in Abuja and the Ikeja under-bridge in Lagos, while chanting solidarity songs and slogans.
Adegoke Fayoade, the commissioner of police in Lagos, was on the ground at the nation’s commercial capital.
The protests have been peaceful so far and policemen were seen distributing water and biscuits to parched protesters from a truck in a video shared by The Cable.
TheNewsMatrics reports that this is an unusual development and could signal a new era of policing since many protests in the past have been suppressed with force.
In Abuja, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, and Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, led rally.
“There is hunger in the land. We are hungry. There is nobody that doesn’t know this. Our rally is a peaceful one,” said Ajaero.
The protesters also marched to the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
A late night meeting on Monday between the federal government and NLC was not enough to convince the latter to shelve the nationwide protests.
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