Nigerian police, looking to break up a pro-subsidy protest in Kano, used tear gas on the demonstrators who had stayed overnight.
According to the BBC, protesters reported that police forces set upon them, unexpectedly using tear gas canisters on a group of them occupying a major roundabout.
However, a police spokesman denied the reports of violence of peaceful protesters, saying police forces only used force on “hoodlums” who started trouble.
Fuel prices have more than doubled since the Federal Government announced on Sunday, 1 January that it had officially removed the fuel subsidy.
Alongside the spike in fuel prices, transportations fares more than doubled, sparking anger and protests nationwide.
Labour unions have said a nationwide indefinite strike is set to start on Monday and Nigerians have been urged to stay away from their work places, effectively paralyzing the government until the fuel price is reversed to it’s initial N65/litre.
According to BBC, police officers also reportedly beat the protesters, turning the peaceful protest violent and injuring over 300 protesters.
The BBC’s Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai in Kano said during Wednesday up to 2,000 people occupied the city’s main traffic roundabout, renaming it Liberation Square.
Their aim was to stay in the square until the Nigerian government backtracked on its decision.
But protesters told the BBC that what started off as a peaceful demonstration suddenly erupted into violence in the early hours of Thursday morning, with about 300 injured.
“The police took cover and they started shooting tear gas into air and before we knew it they started hitting people,” one of the organisers, Yusuf Idris Amoke, told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“I was beaten by a stick, but with other people, guns were used on them.”
“Everyone was running for his dear life; some people were falling; some people were taken unawares because they were sleeping,” Mr Amoke said.
Kano police spokesman Magaji Musa Majiya disputed this version of the events, saying there were no beatings and no casualties.
