Armed police operatives have begun to apply force to evacuate protesters from around the Eagle Square at the centre of the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
The secretariat is opposite the Three Arms Zone, which houses the presidency (Executive), national assembly (Legislature) and the Supreme Court (Judiciary).
The president resides at the Presidential villa often called Aso Rock. The square which is less than 2kms from the presidential villa is often used for high government’s activities like presidential inauguration, political parties’ convention and others.
Protests at the square are often disallowed over security fears due to its closeness to key government’s offices and residential areas, especially the presidential villa.
The square was a subject of intense controversy between the organisers of the end of bad governance protests and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Wike had declared the square out of bounds and rejected receiving a letter the organisers wrote to him informing him of their desire to use it for demonstration.
While the organisers vowed to use the square as it was a public property being funded by taxpayers’ money, the Minister obtained a court injunction on Wednesday night, banning protests from holding at the square.
All was quiet in the morning as protesters began to converge at the Unity Fountain a few metres from the square and Moshood Abiola Stadium, which is some kilometres away from the square, began to move towards the square.
The FCT Police Commissioner, Benneth Igweh, had led his team to the stadium and insisted protesters must enter the stadium even as counter protesters began to arrive before losing control of the protesters.
Police operatives however followed protesters as they began to move towards the square where things began to spiral out of control.
As soon as the two groups of protesters merged at the square which increased their numbers, police began to fire teargas to disperse them.
NewsNGR witnessed several arrests as some protesters were hauled into the waiting police van while others laid on the ground injured.
A police officer shouted “orders from above,” as he alongside other operatives which included soldiers charged towards the protesters sending many of them to scamper to safety.
As of the time of filing these reports, the police are in a battle mood and are descending on the protesters with many abandoning the venue and running towards the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance just within the Federal Secretariat.