How anti-Buhari protesters ‘escaped death’ at Wuse market

Some members of the ‘Our Mumu Don Do’ movement, which is leading a protest demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari either resume office or resign, escaped death by the whiskers on Tuesday.

A group of young men attacked the protesters led by Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, at the Wuse market in Abuja.

TheCable gathered that Charly Boy went to the market for mobilisation of people for a protest on Wednesday.

The fracas started when he arrived at the market in the company of members of his group, who wore shirts with the inscription ‘Our Mumu Don Do’.

According to a witness, they were denied entry by the market officials.

The group was said to have made frantic efforts to enter the market, but was pushed back the officials; an argument then ensued.

The argument attracted the youth of the market, who launched an attack on the group, thinking that they had brought the #ResumeorResign protest to the place.

The youth chanted; ‘Sai Baba! Sai Baba! Sai Baba’ as they descended on the group, chasing them with sticks and stones.

The police were forced to disperse the crowd after the confrontation got rowdy, while traders were asked to vacate the place to avoid looting of their wares.

The fracas, which lasted for two hours, was brought under control by men of the civil defence corps who made some arrests at the scene of the violence.

Charly Boy escaped, but the mob resorted to attacking passersby and shops located around the market.

When TheCable visited the market around 2pm, a Toyota Hilux van belonging to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) rushed a male who sustained injuries out of the scene.

“It’s the (wheel) barrow boys who attacked Charly Boy as they were protesting,” a witness who was hurrying out of the place, told TheCable.

Anjuguri Manzah, spokesman of the police command in the FCT, told NAN that the prompt intervention of the police averted a major clash between two opposing sides at the market.

“The police had brought the situation under control at the market,” Manzah said.

He said to forestall further breakdown of law and order, the management of the market had ordered its closure.

Manzah also said a large contingent of policemen had been deployed to the market to provide security.

Buhari has spent 100 treating an undisclosed ailment in the UK.

Photo credit: Channels TV