The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has disclosed that a policeman was murdered while on duty during the nationwide protests on Thursday.
Briefing Journalists on Thursday in Abuja, the IGP explained that some of his men were also injured by hoodlums who disguised as protesters.
Egbetokun said some police stations in the country were razed by rampaging rioters.
He lamented that events in major cities on Thursday were “mass uprising and looting, not protests”.
“Police stations have been destroyed. There have been attempts to take over government houses,” Egbetokun said, adding that looting of public and private warehouses and facilities was widespread.
“In places like FCT, Kaduna, Kano and Gombe, among others, we recorded incidents of unprovoked attacks on our security personnel where one policeman has been reported murdered and others seriously injured.
“In light of the current situation, the Nigeria Police Force has placed all units on red alert. Our officers are fully mobilised and prepared to respond swiftly and decisively to public safety and order,” the IGP said.
The #EndBadGovernance protests turned violent in Kano, Borno, Yobe and Nasarawa states, among other 32 states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital where rampaging hoodlums burned vehicles and looted warehouses and private stores.
Policemen were seen dispersing protesters using tear gas, even as civil society organisations condemned the action of the police. Curfews have been imposed in Kano, Borno, Yobe and Nasarawa states.
Propagated on social media, the nationwide protests against economic hardship started on Thursday, August 1, 2024, and is scheduled to stretch till August 10 across all states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital Abuja.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windowsChannels.
