After day one of the #EndBadGovernance protest in Nigeria, the Nigerian police have failed to protect citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest.
Development Diaries reports that citizens took to the streets in major cities on Thursday, 01 August, to protest against high cost of living in the country and calling for an end to bad governance. However, demonstrations ended in violence in parts of the country.
While we continue to call on Nigerians to ensure demonstrations remain peaceful, it seems the Nigerian police are eager for violent breakouts from the protest.
Kaduna and Kano recorded damages to properties by protesters, but this does not justify the horrible scenes of people with disabilities (PWDs) being maltreated by police personnel.
In a video posted on social media by the Executive Director of Connected Development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal, police officers are seen assaulting a PWD.
In his post, Lawal described the victim as Hamza Waziri, a member CODE Board of Trustees, a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Chevening Fellow and the Founder of Initiative for the Liberalisation of Physically Challenged People in Nigeria.
The rights of Nigerians continue to be violated, and assaulting a PWD while exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly, demonstrates the gross violation of not just the rights of citizens, but also the total disregard for the rule of law by the police.
Journalists have also not been left out as another video shows police personnel assaulting the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abuja Chapter, Jide Oyekunle.
Security agencies have a responsibility to protect protesters while ensuring law and order are maintained, even more so, given the promise made by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to protect citizens and ensure professionalism in the operations of officers.
Development Diaries reiterates its call to the Inspector General of Police, Egbetokun, to call his officers to order and ensure that those found guilty face justice.
We also urge Nigerians to remain peaceful in their demonstrations as violence will not yield gains in addressing their concerns.