Renewed Protests Shutter Schools in Nigeria’s Commercial Hub

(Bloomberg) -- A wave of demonstrations in Nigeria against police brutality showed no signs of letting up Wednesday, with a 10th straight day of marches being staged in Abuja, the capital, and Lagos, the commercial hub.

Several main streets and bridges in Lagos will be sealed off until police officers who shot dead a participant in an Oct. 12 march are identified, according to messages circulating on social media, the main means of communication used by the predominantly youthful protesters. Some schools in the business district notified parents they will close for the day to prevent children being caught up in gridlock.

The protests were triggered by the circulation of a video clip purportedly showing a civilian being killed by the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The unit had faced prior accusations of human-rights violations, torture and extra-judicial killings.

At least 10 people have died nationwide since the demonstrations began on Oct. 5, according to advocacy group Amnesty International. Tolu Ogunlesi, an adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, has confirmed one death on Twitter.

Widespread Defiance

While most previous protests in Nigeria have been quashed by the security forces, this time round the government has prohibited the use of force against marchers, ordered the release of all arrested participants and disbanded the anti-robbery unit. Its approach may have been prompted by the scale of the protests -- the largest in a decade -- and widespread defiance against measures instituted to try and quell them.

Despite the government’s conciliatory remarks, some protesters remain in detention and troops have been deployed to harass crowds in Abuja, said Aisha Yesufu, a protest organizer, who recounted how she’d been kicked by a soldier during a march in the city on Tuesday.

Demonstrations are continuing because Nigerians “want to be sure that indeed what the government said it’s doing is being done,” she said. “The youth can see that the government cannot be trusted, because there’s no sincerity of purpose from them at all.”

The airing of pictures and video clips depicting police brutality in real time on platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp has made it more difficult for the authorities to deny the validity of the protesters’ complaints or protect the identity of the responsible officers. Some of the marches have been organized using virtual private networks, preventing the security agencies from getting advance notice.

Bitcoin Funding

When the government clamped down on Flutterwave, a payment platform used to collect money to help the protesters, a new Bitcoin-based platform was quickly established to raise funds.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and its largest oil producer, ranks as the worst-performing country in the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index compiled by the International Police Science Association. The gauge measures the ability of security bodies to render services.

The Nigerian Senate said on Twitter that the protests were justified, given the anti-robbery unit’s conduct. A new Special Weapons and Tactics Team has been established to replace the squad, but the protesters have already started a new social media campaign calling for its disbandment.

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