Naira Scarcity Protest: Police Kill One in Ibadan

Ololade Adeyanju/

One person was reportedly killed during a confrontation between security agents and protesters today in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Protest against the scarcity of naira notes and petrol started yesterday in several parts of the city and had led to the vandalisation of government offices, banks, shops and public infrastructure.

In a statement, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Adewale Osifeso said the killing of the individual occurred at 10.15am while security agents were on a combined patrol in the Apata area of the Ido Local Government Area.

It reads: “Today Saturday, 04/02/2023 at about 1015hrs, while embarking series of confidence-building patrols around different black spots and flash points, the joint convoy patrol comprising of the police and other agencies ran into a band of hoodlums around Apata Junction Market, Apata Area under Ido Local Government Area,” the statement partly read.

“In a rather surprising event, the hoodlums who had perfected plans to molest residents, harass shop owners and loot shops on sighting the combined convoy of security launched a series of unprovoked attacks by firing guns, hurling stones, sharp objects and other dangerous missiles at them.

“During the rage, an individual identified to have been a member of a vigilante group and who was reported to have died in the fiasco has since been deposited at a government hospital for post-mortem.”

The police spokesman added that normalcy had returned to the area following the deployment of patrol teams.