By Damola Emmanuel
Day one of the roiling nationwide protests against hardship in the country yielded 13 fatalities.
International non-profit human rights organization, Amnesty International, dished out the morbidity figure in a statement issued on Friday.
The humanitarian group broke down the morbid statistics as follows, saying: six persons were killed and dozens severely wounded in Suleja, Niger State; four were killed in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State; while three were killed in Kaduna.
Amnesty International summed up everything and urged the Federal Government to carry out painstaking inquiry into the killings.
“The Nigerian authorities must investigate these incidents impartially and effectively and ensure that security personnel suspected of responsibility for the alleged deadly use of force are held to account through fair trial,” the humanitarian group said.
“Violent crackdown on peaceful protesters is unjustified and unacceptable. The Nigerian authorities’ fierce clampdown on peaceful protests yesterday and the harmful rhetoric by government officials ahead of the protests appear to be part of a wider plan to find justification for depriving people of the right to peaceful protest.
“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.
“Particularly in Abuja, the police have routinely misused tear gas against largely peaceful protesters.
“The relentless repression of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly speaks to the Nigerian authorities’ growing hostility to dissent.
“Nigerian security agencies’ unlawful attitude of using firearms as tactical tools for the management of protests must end.
“The Nigerian government must also pay more attention to taking concrete steps to address the impact of on economic, social, and cultural rights, including people’s rights to health and education.
“Authorities must also end the rampant violations of the people’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.”
