There was pandemonium at the Ibom Plaza, the epic centre of social activities in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Friday when operatives of the Nigeria Police fired canisters of tear gas to disperse a small group of protesters.
The protesters, numbering about 15, had earlier displayed placards with inscriptions such as, “Cost of living don kill the living”, “Politicians pity us”, “give us 10 more refineries, reduce cost of fuel to N100”, “Increase Police, Army welfare”, among others
The protesters were singing and chanting solidarity songs when the Police opened the canisters on them and marched those who remained off to the Unity Park, along Udoudoma Avenue, where they had been restricted to carry out the exercise.
One of the protesters, who spoke with journalists on condition of anonymity at the plaza, before the police swooped on them, said they were protestors because life in Nigeria was becoming unbearable for an average person to cope with.
“We are here to protest against high cost of fuel. In this country we can do better as a people, we cannot produce crude oil in Nigeria and buy fuel for N900 per litre, this is unacceptable
“An average person cannot feed his family again because of the way things are going, The Federal Government said it has increased minimum wage, the minimum wage is useless because it cannot buy a bag of rice.
“If you collect N70,000, you need to borrow M20,000 to add before you can buy a bag of rice, we want a bag of rice to be brought back to N10,000 and the price of fuel down to N100,” he said
The protesters were demobilized by security agents during the first day of the protest, following Police restrictions and early Thursday morning showers which lasted for several hours.
It was gathered that the protesters had converged at the Unity Park, along Udoudoma Avenue, the venue approved by the Police Command, to kick-off the protest.
However, the occasional rainfall and heavy presence of the security operatives scared away few of them who had turned up at the venue even as it was gathered that the operatives restricted them from moving to other locations.
