Hardship: Abuja Protesters Shout Down Minister As Police Fire Teargas At Eagle Square

The Minister of State for Youths Development, Ayodele Olawande, was on Thursday shouted down when he tried to address enraged #EndBadGovernance protesters at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

The protesters shouted Olawande down and continued to chant “Hunger dey”, disallowing the Minister from speaking to them.

Meanwhile, after calming down the crowd, the Minister said he was not attempting to shut down the protest, describing himself as a fellow Comrade, who had attended between a hundred and five hundred protests in the past.

“I am not here to fight you, I’m not here to ask you not to protest, it is your right. Like I said, I have been to over 100 to 500 protests,” he said.

The Minister also assured that he would address the Police regarding the shooting of teargas canisters against the protesters.

Meanwhile, protesters have insisted they would not join their fellow #EndBadGovernance protesters at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, noting that a few days ago, a pro-government women protesters had used the Eagle Square without interference by the Police.

Also, a pocket of protesters were seen in high spirits outside the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, as they were not allowed into the premises of the facility because of the tight security presence which consisted of both the police and military personnel.

Since the protesters were not allowed into the National Stadium, they decided to move to the Eagle Square following the information of the teargas canisters fired at their fellow protesters at Eagle Square by the Police.

Police personnel stationed at Eagle Square in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday fired the teargas in the air to disperse a handful of protesters against hardship in the country, who gathered around the facility to register their feelings about the state of the nation.

It was observed that a handful of protesters came to the area against the widely publicised information that an FCT Court had earlier on Wednesday approved Moshood Abiola National Stadium as the venue of their action. However, those who gathered at the stadium led by an Abuja-based lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, were disallowed from using the stadium by security personnel.