Nigeria Police Disperse Anti-Buhari Protesters in Abuja

(Bloomberg) -- The Nigerian police used water cannons and teargas to disperse about 100 people that gathered for a second day of protests on Tuesday in the capital, Abuja, to demand the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from medical treatment abroad or his resignation.

A police team arrived as the protesters, led by civic organizations, gathered in the city center saying “there’s an order from above” to stop the march, Raphael Adebayo, one of the organizers, said. “We continued, but before we knew it they started shooting their water cannons and teargas.”

The police intervened to prevent “miscreants, hoodlums and other criminal
elements from hijacking the protest to cause mayhem,” Anjuguri Manzah, the police spokesman for Abuja, said in an emailed statement. The groups said they planned daily protests until Buhari resumed or resigned.

The 74-year-old president has been in London since May 7 for treatment of an undisclosed illness, fueling concern about his ability to see through the rest of his term that ends in 2019. A photograph released by the Nigerian presidency last week showed Buhari with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who visited him in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Solape Renner in Lagos at srenner4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu, Sophie Mongalvy