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Normalcy Return to Abuja
The entire FCT is now calm after armed security operatives, on Friday, fired teargas canisters to halt protesters’ march from MKO Abiola National Stadium through the United Nations’ building area towards Eagle Square where protesting groups planned to converge for a rally.
While Abuja metropolis was largely calm and peaceful on Friday, shops and offices are now open in Kubwa, Dutse Alhaji, Kagini, Wuse and the entire central business district.
Security personnel from various agencies in apparent response to intelligence reports, reinforced their cordons around key government buildings in the Central Area and the Three Arms Zone on Friday.
The protesters, who began their march at 12:39 pm, regrouped at the MKO Abiola National Stadium by 1:50 pm, briefly engaging security forces in a shouting match but unlike Thursday afternoon when miscreants hiding under the guise of protest stoned policemen near the Ministry of Finance in the Central Area, no violence was recorded on Friday.
“The sun was hot yesterday and many people (protesters) became tired, very thirsty and hundry on Thursday afternoon without finding any source of food while facing a long trek back to their respective destinations in the suburbs,” a hardly –literate protester who spoke through an interpreter told The Nation.
Other protesters warned against the use of brute force to stop the protest, demanding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should make a presidential address on hunger, increased cost of foodstuffs and other grievances.
The protesters chanting slogans like “End Bad Government” and “Bring back Subsidy” as they marched also called for the return of fuel subsidies to reduce petrol prices and an end to corruption in the subsidy regime.
The protesters had earlier converged on different parts of Abuja, including the Berger Roundabout in Wuse Zone 6, as early as 9:06 am, before marching to the MKO Abiola Stadium.
A helicopter was spotted flying over the stadium as protesters gathered, adding to the tense atmosphere.
Security forces, including personnel from the Army Headquarters Garrison Command, NSCDC, and DSS, are on the scene, with FCT Commissioner of Police, Bennett Igweh, visiting the area.
Aside from the ugly incident most parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were calm as residents took in the events accompanying the #EndBadGovernance protest 24 hours earlier.
There was light traffic along most major roads in the nation’s capital, with security personnel in riot gear stationed at strategic places ostensibly to avoid a repeat of the riots witnessed during Thursday’s protest, when miscreants took advantage to cause mayhem in some areas.
Increased police presence along the highway leading to Nnamdi Azikwe airport appeared to have forestalled the influx of hoodlums into the city; in Lugbe area where policemen exchanged gunshots with a group on Thursday, all was calm throughout Friday as police continued a search for hoodlum with gunshot wounds.
Across Abuja metropolis and the satellite towns, many residents did not come out for their usual daily schedules as they waited to see the direction of events on the second day of the 10-day protest.
Many private and public sector employees who got stranded on Thursday because of the availability of very few buses and taxis to take them back to the satellite towns easily found cause to casually add Friday to an extended weekend.
The few commuters who ventured out on Friday afternoon had a difficult time finding means of transportation to their destinations.
While roads that were blocked on Thursday were opened, many business premises were still shut, even though no gatherings of protesters or miscreants were visible.
However, some motorists still put green leaves on their vehicles in anticipation of any appearance by protesters who usually interpret the presence of such leaves as a sign of sympathy with the protest cause.
The security cordons around the Three Arms Zone which houses the Federal Secretariat, Presidential Villa, National Assembly and the Supreme Court remained heightened, with dozens of fully kitted soldiers and policemen mounting vigil along the roads around the seat of power.
Earlier in the morning on Thursday, there was some anxiety in many parts of the nation’s capital, with fears that the protest may descend into anarchy but policemen easily brought pockets of unruly hoodlums under control by shooting few canisters of teargas to disperse the massing crowds at Berger Roundabout and a part of Asokoro that connects the city’s outskirts.
For a while on Thursday, the Kubwa-Zuba motorway was blocked by protesters who prevented the normal movement of traffic and some commuters reported being harassed and stripped of their phones and other valuables in the area but within few hours of their arrival on the scene, security agents finally cleared the road for smooth flow of light traffic.
Also outside Abuja city, in the Kurudu axis, miscreants under the guise of protesting hunger and bad governance mounted tricycles (Keke NAPEP) brandished green tree branches, cudgels, and other dangerous implements, forcing commuters to turn back.
Their actions caused traders to hurriedly close their shops for fear of being looted by the miscreants who succeeded in cutting off movement from Karshi town to other parts of the nation’s capital city for few hours.
Prompt mobilization by the police, the military and other security agencies between Thursday afternoon and Friday enhanced the fast restoration of peace and order, especially in the satellite towns, including Mararaba and Lugbe where flashes of violence were reported.
