The police on Thursday pledged to uphold law and order across the country as the #EndBadGovernance protests took place in several regions of Nigeria.
Force spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, appearing on Channels Television’s The August Protests show, stated that no officers fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters. However, he noted that tear gas was used to disperse “unruly hoodlums” who had taken to the streets to cause chaos.
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“To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think any policeman has fired any live ammunition. Everything you are seeing now is tear gas.
“We have seen the unruly attitude of certain hoodlums who have taken over the streets. We are still engaging them with tear gas. No live ammunition yet,” Adejobi said.
“It is not what we planned for again. It is not what they painted the thing to be. This is a different scenario and we need to nip it in the bud before it gets escalated and turn to anarchy,” said the Force spokesman.
“The police and other security agencies will not allow anarchy in this country. The lesson we learnt during EndSARS is still fresh in our memories. And that is enough for us,” he said, adding that “it won’t be too palatable for us if this continues for 10 days”.
The Force spokesman emphasized that the police value the life of every Nigerian and have handled the protests with professionalism.
“No occasion so far in Abuja has warranted the use of live ammunition. All so far is the use of tear gas. We value the souls of Nigerians; a soul is important to us, and we don’t want to lose any soul. We are mindful of that and we are going to engage every situation professionally.
“If it is peaceful, we are ready to move with them. We have deployed our ambulances to even follow protesters where necessary but where they want to be violent, we know what to do; we are going to cut their clothes according to their sizes, we are going to give it back to them the way they want it.
“If they want to run down the government, we will not fold our hands to see this system being run down.”
He said hoodlums will be identified and dealt with decisively according to the provisions of the law.
“Section 40 of the Constitution has given us rights to assembly, association and the like but Section 45 has stated clearly that on no account should allow (violence). No fundamental human right is absolute and this is what we are saying,” he said.
