A disturbing video has emerged showing a security operative shooting a protester in Azare, Katagum local government area of Bauchi State, on Monday.
The video, which has been independently verified as authentic, shows the protester being pinned to the ground and tortured by several individuals.
The footage captured the moment a young man lies on the ground, being repeatedly hit by two or three persons. Subsequently, a security officer, standing beside a white Toyota Hilux van, approaches and strikes the victim twice before pointing a rifle at him and pulling the trigger. The crowd reacts with screams as the officer walks away without a second glance.
Efforts to obtain a response from the Bauchi State Police Command regarding the incident have been unsuccessful. Inquiries directed to the spokesman of the Bauchi State Governor, Mukhtar Gidado, also went unanswered.
The video has sparked widespread reactions on social media, with users tagging the Nigerian Police Force, Amnesty International Nigeria and beyond, the UN Human Rights Court, and the International Criminal Court.
The incident was part of a broader wave of protests under the #EndBadGovernance movement, which began August 1, highlighting numerous alleged extrajudicial killings by the police. However, the police force has denied all such allegations.
Amnesty International condemned the use of lethal force against the protesters, stating, “Our findings, so far, show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and deep poverty.”
Muyiwa Adejobi, the Nigeria Police Force spokesman, acknowledged instances of killings during the protests but claimed none were carried out by the police.
Following a series of fatal shootings in Kano State over the weekend, Amnesty International has urged Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry. The organization reported that at least 10 protesters were killed in Kurna and Kofar Nasarawa areas of Kano metropolis.
Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), strongly condemned the security forces’ actions, describing them as a “massacre.” He questioned the professionalism of the police, led by Kayode Egbetokun, and called for a focus on combating bandits rather than attacking innocent protesters.
“With unconfirmed reports putting casualties at over 40 in two days of managing the EndHunger protest across the country, we have sufficient reasons (backed up by reports and video clips) to call into question the professionalism of our security personnel as this represents nothing but MASSACRE of citizens,” Ajaero said. “Had the security personnel deployed the same thoughtless brutal precision against bandits or other criminals, our country would have been an eldorado.”
Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka also weighed in, condemning the use of live bullets against protesters. “Live bullets as state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation,” Soyinka wrote.
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