The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, have said the police, military, and other agencies involved in the management of the #EndBadGovernance protest did not use live ammunition during the protests.
Egbetokun stated this at a meeting of security agency heads in Abuja.
He said, “The police and the military, and indeed no other security agency involved in the management of this protest, have not 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.
“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 is teargas and nothing more.”
However, on Wednesday, the Director of Army Public Relations, Major General Onyeama Nwachukwu, confirmed the shooting to death of a 6-year-old protester by a soldier in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Describing it as unfortunate, Nwachukwu explained that the incident happened on Tuesday when troops of the Nigerian Army received a distress call to help disperse some hoodlums, who had gathered in Samaru burning tires and attacking security personnel.