Police duck allegation of killing one person amid naira scarcity protests 

Police operatives in Ibadan, Oyo state, shot one person dead on Saturday, during a protest over the lingering naira, and fuel scarcity in the country.

But, the Oyo police command claimed the deceased died in a fiasco, without giving much details about it.

The police didn’t also mention arresting anyone involved in the said fiasco.

Adewale Osifeso, who speaks for the state’s police command, alleged that some hoodlums fired gunshots and hurled stones at operatives during a patrol.

He said the police retaliated with “reasonable force”.

He said, “The trained officers, cautious of the level of casualties that might be recorded should they engage at the location, resorted to restraints and professionally took charge at the scene while arresting the situation with reasonable force in line with standard operational procedure.

“However, 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.”

Osifeso said the police have restored the peace and urged citizens to go about their lawful duties.

TheCornet reports that Nigerians are outraged over their inability to access and swap old naira notes for the newly redesigned N500, N1000 denominations at banks and ATM points. Many are compelled to access cash from agent banks, especially Point of Sale operators who incidentally jacked up their service charges by more than 500 percent in some places.

President Muhammadu Buhari asked to be given seven days to address the excruciating challenges to Nigerians.