Nigeria police fire tear gas at Lagos protesters; Braithwaite demands soldiers be withdrawn.
Special to USAfricaonline.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of Nigeria360, UNNalumni, IgboEvents and CLASSmagazine Houston.
Lagos, Jan 19 – Nigerian police fired tear gas Thursday in Lagos at hundreds of protestors marching against the authorities’ security crackdown in the aftermath of a week-long strike over fuel prices.
According to an AFP correspondent, more than 200 protestors defied police warnings and marched towards a park in the economic capital that had become the epicentre of mass mobilisation against the removal of fuel subsidies.
One protester fainted from inhaling the tear gas.
Troops deployed heavily on Monday after President Goodluck Jonathan was forced into a partial climbdown over fuel prices by nationwide strikes that threatened to shut down the production of Africa’s largest oil exporter.
Heavily armed soldiers have since been stationed in parts of the country and sealed off the main protest ground in Lagos.
Thursday’s protests were led by a former presidential candidate in the 1999 elections, Tunji Braithwaite, alongside a host of other respected Nigerians, including a former finance minister, Muslim leaders and lawyers. “As elders we are totally against the military siege in Lagos. This is a democracy. They should be withdrawn immediately,” Braithwaite told the protesters before the march.
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Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ : IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/
Related insight: USAfrica’s October 17, 2001 special report/alert: Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html
https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/
310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com on July 28, 2009. www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584
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News archives related to Jos, here https://usafricaonline.com/?s=jos
USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin. By Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/
Tunisia, Egypt . . . Is Nigeria next? By Prof. Rosaire Ifedi https://usafricaonline.com/2011/02/13/tunisia-egypt-is-nigeria-next-by-prof-rosaire-ifedi/
