Updated: Scores killed as soldiers, police confront #EndSARS protesters, hoodlums

• Five police stations, one LG secretariat razed

Many people including policemen were killed on Tuesday in Lagos as soldiers opened fire on protesters in different parts of Lagos.

Violent attacks were also witnessed in other states in desperate moves by the police to quash nationwide protests being staged by youths against police brutality and bad governance, leaving dozens of people dead,

A report by The Punch put the number of casualties across the country at 49 including six policemen.

Four police stations and a local government secretariat were torched in Tuesday’s violence in Lagos. About five other police stations were vandalised.

Apart from the killings, several other people were seriously wounded as they were caught in the web of violence that took place at the Lekki toll plaza, Mushin, Orile and Ikorodu in Lagos.

For the Lekki incident, a BBC report quoted a witness who claimed he counted about 20 bodies and at least 50 injured after soldiers fired gunshots at the crowd of protesters.

The Punch account said armed soldiers allegedly shot at the #EndSARS protesters, leaving at least seven persons in the process.

This is based on a video recorded by an eyewitness, reposted on Instablog9ja.

“They have killed more than seven people that I have seen with my eyes. They were killed with real bullets and not even rubber bullets,” the recorder of the footage said.

Many protesters also reportedly sustained bullet wounds as a result of the attack that came after the streetlights on the premises were switched off and the CCTV disconnected.

Ironically before the shooting, two soldiers had visited the tollgate to pledge their support for the protest by the #EndSARS campaigners.

Some armed soldiers were later reportedly seen advancing from the Ozumba Mbadiwe axis after a blackout descended on the area and they started shooting into the air and at the protesters.

This created a chaotic situation and people started running to different directions.

In Mushin, the report indicated that 17 people lost their lives during a clash between hoodlums and policemen attached to the Olosan Division.

The hoodlums had reportedly barricaded the Oduwoye Junction in Mushin and denied the Divisional Police Officer at the Olosan Division and some policemen access to the route to a destination in the area.

In the process, it was learnt that there was a confrontation between the hoodlums and the policemen, who initially retreated but came back later with reinforcement.

Two policemen and three other persons were reportedly killed when the #EndSARS protesters, hoodlums and police attached to the Orile Police Division clashed in the Orile area of the state. The police station was also burnt.

One Bolaji who witnessed the incident said, “Around 9am, when the protesters got to the Orile Police Station, they were chanting #EndSARS and that they don’t want the Divisional Police Officer, popularly known as Iya Rainbow, to head the station again. There was a confrontation between the DPO and the people at the station.

“Annoyed by the development, the people clashed with the policemen and they went to get petrol and set the station ablaze.

“When the people at Pako area got to know that someone has been shot dead at Orile, it propelled them to burn the station at Pako.”

When the protesters learnt that three of their colleagues had been shot dead, there was a reprisal and two policemen reportedly died in the process.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the Lagos command, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement, said that the police formations burnt in the state were located in Orile, Layeni, Amukoko, and Cele outpost (under Ijesha division).

He also said the disbanded SARS office at Ajegunle and the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government secretariat were burnt by suspected hoodlums.

In Ogun State, hoodlums killed an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service attached to the Ogun Area Command I, and injured another during an attack on Customs men along Owode-Idiroko road on Tuesday.

In Oyo State, hoodlums were said to have used the #EndsSARS protest to burn down a police station in the Ojoo area of Ibadan. Five persons, including two policemen, were killed during the attack.

In Kano, eyewitnesses said four people were killed when hoodlums attacked #EndSARS protesters.

In Abia, two policemen were killed when angry youths set ablaze a police station on the Umuoba road and attacked another police station located near the popular Bata junction along Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway.

There was violence in Abuja when armed thugs attacked #EndSARS protesters in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja on Tuesday.