The president’s address is coming days after persons dressed in army uniform opened fire on unarmed protesters, who had converged on Lekki toll gate in Lagos under the #EndSARS campaign.
Although the state had declared a curfew on Tuesday — the day of the Lekki incident — the shooting began around 7pm, two hours before the curfew was scheduled to begin.
Before Tuesday, the #EndSARS protests, which began as peaceful demonstrations nationwide, had turned violent as hoodlums launched attacks, resulting in the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
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However, by Wednesday, the protests escalated with hoodlums taking to the streets and attacking media houses, government-owned institutions, prisons, police stations, homes, among others.
While the Tuesday shooting has received widespread backlash within and outside Nigeria, with the United Nations condemning the use of violence against protesters, criticism had also trailed the president’s silence on the incident.
Matthew Kukah, Catholic bishop of Sokoto, had also expressed surprise at Buhari’s silence on the violence that have rocked the #EndSARS protests.
“I really cannot understand this. I feel totally helpless in the sense that I cannot find any reason and I don’t think any Nigerian in the right frame of mind can find a reason for why the president has remained so silent on the crisis,” Kukah had said.
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