The Nigerian Army has admitted that one of its soldiers killed a teenager in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The army, in a statement yesterday, Wednesday, August 7, by its spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed that a soldier enforcing the Kaduna State’s 24-hour curfew, indeed, killed a teenager in Zaria, Kaduna State, thus admitting that security agencies deployed to monitor the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protests across the country have routinely used live bullets on protesters.
The confirmation of the use of ammunition by the military barely 24 hours later, contradicted the consistent, bare-faced denial by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, that any of the nation’s security agencies applied excessive force including the use of live bullets on the protesters.
It would be recalled that the first reported incident of killing was in Suleja, Niger State, where at least six protesters were allegedly shot on the first day of the protest which began on Thursday August 1, by security operatives trying to restore order.
The Suleja incident was followed by another case in Kubwa, Abuja, where a teenager was reportedly gunned down by a policeman, even as similar killings have been recorded in Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Borno, Katsina, among others.
Despite these reports and Amnesty International’s condemnation of the use of lethal force against protesters, Egbetokun had insisted that neither the police nor the other security agencies were involved in the use of ammunition to quell violent demonstrations across the country.
Although Force spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, had admitted on Tuesday, August 6, at one of his media briefings in Abuja, the FCT, that there had been some instances of killing in the course of the protests but that none was by the police, Egbetokun once again pulled a straight face and denied the use of live bullets against protesters, insisting: “The police and the military, indeed no other security agency involved in the management of this protest has deployed excessive use of force.”
“Instead, what we had were attacks on security agents during the protest. From our record, there were no shooting incidents by the police. The police or military did not use any live ammunition in the management of these protests. Instead, we have had cases where our officers were injured and are in critical condition as we speak,” he emphasized.
“I will dismiss that as fake news and very wrong allegations. We didn’t use excessive force at all. We didn’t even deploy the whole of our strength in this protest even when it turned violent. We have water cannons we did not deploy, we have rubber bullets, we didn’t use. All that we have used in the management of this protest is teargas and nothing more.”
But, according to Nwachukwu, “on 6 August 2024, troops of the Nigerian Army received a distress call that some hoodlums gathered in Samaru in large numbers, burning tires on the road and pelting stones on security personnel.”
“The troops immediately mobilised and arrived at the scene to disperse the mob and enforce the curfew imposed by the State Government,” he further narrated.
“On arrival at the scene, the hoodlums brazenly attempted attacking the troops prompting a soldier to fire a warning shot to scare the hoodlums away, which unfortunately led to the death of a 16-year-old boy Ismail Mohammed. The soldier involved has since been arrested and is undergoing interrogation as at the time of this report.”
In a statement, Amnesty International (AI) declared, rather unequivocally: “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.”
The global human rights watch group, therefore, called for a judicial commission of inquiry into the deaths of protesters by security forces.
