Nigerian police - The African Mirror

Feb

19

2023

Nigerian police to treat protesters who attack banks, ATMs as robbers

NIGERIAN police said some citizens frustrated by cash shortages in the country were attacking banks and vandalising cash-dispensing machines and warned that they would be treated as armed robbers. The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) said its members would stay away from work in states where bank branches were being attacked "until normalcy is restored." Ahead of next week's election to choose new lawmakers and a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, frustration is rising in Africa's most populous nation over a central bank plan to swap old naira banknotes for new ones. The move…

Feb

19

2023

By The African Mirror

Protesters who attack banks, ATMs are robbers – Nigerian police

NEWS

NIGERIAN police said some citizens frustrated by cash shortages in the country were attacking banks and vandalising cash-dispensing machines and warned that they would be treated as armed robbers. The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) said its members would stay away from work in states where bank branches were being attacked "until normalcy is restored." Ahead of next week's election to choose new lawmakers and a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, frustration is rising in Africa's most populous nation over a central bank plan to swap old naira banknotes for new ones. The move…

Jul

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian police rescues 100 kidnapped women, children

NEWS

POLICE and government authorities have secured the release of 100 people, including women, children and nursing mothers, who were kidnapped from their village in northwestern Nigeria over a month ago, a local police spokesperson said. Nigeria is battling an increase in armed robberies and kidnappings for ransom, mainly in northwestern states, where thinly deployed security forces have struggled to contain the rise of armed gangs, commonly referred to as bandits. The released captives had been abducted on June 8 from Manawa village in Zamfara state, Mohammed Shehu, the state's police spokesperson, said in a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday.…

Jun

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian police fire teargas to break up protests

NEWS

SEUN SANNI and AFOLABI SOTUNDE POLICE fired teargas and detained several demonstrators in the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja on Saturday during protests over the country's worsening security situation. Anger over mass kidnappings-for-ransom, a decade-long Islamist insurgency and a crackdown on protesters in Lagos last October has fuelled demands for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to tackle violence and insecurity. There was a heavy police presence in the country's two major cities as several hundred people gathered to protest on Democracy Day, which marks Nigeria's move to civilian rule more than 20 years ago. Reuters…

Jun

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian police hunt for 200 kidnapped children

NEWS

NIGERIAN authorities have revealed that about 200 children had been seized in the latest school kidnapping in its violent north but they ruled out securing their freedom by paying a ransom. Police were trying to track the route the kidnappers had taken with the children, who were seized in a raid on an Islamic school in north-central Niger state on Sunday, a local government official told Reuters. A warplane was also flying over the area to try to spot them, the official said. Gunmen on motorbikes attacked the town of Tegina on Sunday afternoon. One person was shot dead during…

May

20

2021

By The African Mirror

Anger over slow progress, size of rewards at Nigeria’s police brutality hearings

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ALEXIS AKWAGYIRAM NDUKWE Ekekwe was furious when he heard how much compensation a judicial panel had awarded him after finding that members of an elite Nigerian police unit tortured him in custody following a raid on his phone accessories shop: 7,500,000 naira ($18,000). The night after his arrest, he said, officers took him back to the store and pushed him from a second floor balcony, leaving him paralysed from the waist down and struggling to make ends meet. "I sold my land, all my property, my goods!" he shouted. During the hearings, the officer who led the operation disputed Ekekwe's…

Feb

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian police beat, arrest protesters

NEWS

ANGELA UKOMADU and SEUN SANNI NIGERIAN police beat and arrested demonstrators yesterday as a small group protested over the reopening of the site where activists denouncing police brutality were shot last year in the commercial capital, Lagos, Reuters witnesses said. Rights group Amnesty International and witnesses have said soldiers opened fire on protesters on Oct. 20, killing at least 12 people at a toll gate in the city's affluent Lekki district and another area. The military has denied shooting live rounds and the police have denied involvement. There was a heavy presence of armed police officers on Saturday at the…

Jan

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Four police officers killed, one missing, after bandit attack in northwest Nigeria

NEWS

FOUR police officers were killed and one was missing after armed bandits attacked their convoy in northwest Nigeria on Friday, the Nigerian police said. Around 100 armed men attacked 16 police officers on the Birnin Gwari-Funtua highway as they returned to their headquarters in Kano state, a federal police spokesman said in a statement issued on Sunday. Armed groups of men, commonly called bandits, roam throughout northwest Nigeria, committing armed robberies, kidnappings, cattle theft and even murder. In recent months Nigerians have criticized the government for a lack of security. In December, officials said bandits kidnapped more than 300 schoolboys…

Oct

19

2020

By The African Mirror

Nigerian police pledge Red Cross training nationwide protests continue

NEWS

LIBBY GEORGE and TIFE OWOLABI THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will help train Nigeria's new tactical force as thousands nationwide continue to march against police brutality and in demand of further reforms, Nigeria's police inspector general has said. Protests began roughly two weeks ago demanding the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which was accused by Nigerians and groups such as Amnesty International of extortion, brutality and torture. The police force has repeatedly denied the accusations against SARS, though it said earlier this month that "unruly and unprofessional" officers had been arrested and were facing disciplinary…

Oct

10

2020

By The African Mirror

Police fire teargas at Nigerians protesting at alleged brutality

NEWS

ANGELA UKOMADU AND LIBBY GEORGE NIGERIAN police have used teargas to disperse dozens of people in the capital Abuja who had gathered to protest at alleged brutality by members of a special police unit, witnesses said. Protesters, some holding placards, ran as clouds of teargas hung in the air. Multiple people at the incident said on Twitter that police had fired the canisters. A spokesman for the police did not immediately respond to a message and call requesting comment. "They poured teargas on each and every one of us, it's so hot I had to put water on my face.…