Protest: Police Teargas Journalists, Protesters in Akwa Ibom

Okon Bassey in Uyo 

Journalists and a group of protesters were yesterday tear gassed in Akwa Ibom State in an attempt to stop them from having contact to prosecute the “EndBadGovernance protests.”

Violence nearly erupted when operatives of the Nigeria Police in the state opened canisters of tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who had gathered at the Ibom Plaza, to commence the hunger protest for the second day. 

The action of the security operatives attracted anger and condemnation from people within the area describing it as uncivilised and rude behaviour against unarmed protesters who were very peaceful in the approach. 

Another set of policemen was drafted immediately to the scene to ensure the anger of the protesters did not degenerate to an ugly situation.

The placards carried by protesters carried inscriptions such as, “End bad governance in Nigeria; End hunger in Akwa Ibom State, reduce fuel price to N100 and End Japa Japa in Nigeria, among others. 

Following the tear gas opened on them, the protesters were forced to march to Unity Park, along Udoudoma Avenue, where they had been restricted to.

“We are here to protest against hardship in the country; against hunger; against high cost of living and against high pump price of petroleum products. 

“In this country we can do better as a people, we cannot produce crude oil in Nigeria and buy fuel at N900 per litre, this is unacceptable.

“An average person cannot feed his family again because of the way things are going. The federal government said it has increased minimum wage for workers to N70,000, which is useless because it cannot buy a bag of rice. 

“If you collect N70, 000 as minimum wage, you need to borrow M20,000 to add before you can buy a bag of rice. We want a bag of rice to be brought back to N10, 000 and the price of fuel down to N100,” he said.