On Wednesday, police in different districts of Lagos fired shots in the air to disperse protesters defying the curfew, according to a report by BBC from the capital, Abuja. Witnesses said up to 12 people were killed and others wounded when soldiers opened fire. Amnesty International said it had “credible reports” of deaths.
The state governor, however, said there had been no fatalities, although about 25 people had been wounded.
An indefinite 24-hour curfew has been imposed on Lagos and other regions.
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Protesters who briefly gathered again at the Lekki toll gate – where Tuesday’s shootings took place – were forced out by police, he adds.
Protests over a now-disbanded police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), have been taking place for two weeks. The protesters are using the social media hashtag #EndSars to rally crowds.
Reacting to Tuesday’s shootings in the wealthy Lekki suburb, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and the army “to stop killing young #EndSARS protesters”.
Former US Vice-President Joe Biden – who is standing against President Donald Trump in next month’s election – urged Nigerian authorities to cease the “violent crackdown on protesters”.
Armed soldiers were seen barricading the protest site moments before the shooting, BBC Nigeria correspondent Mayeni Jones reported. Eyewitnesses spoke of uniformed men opening fire at the Lekki toll gate on Tuesday evening.
Social media footage streamed live from the scene shows protesters tending to the wounded.
In a tweet, Amnesty International Nigeria said it had “received credible but disturbing evidence of excessive use of force occasioning deaths of protesters at Lekki toll gate in Lagos”.
Amnesty International spokesman Isa Sanusi later said: “People were killed at the tollgate by security forces… we are working on verifying how many.”
However, authorities have not reacted aggressively on the matter. In a statement on Wednesday, President Buhari did not directly refer to the shootings, but called on people to have patience as police reforms “gather pace”.
He added that they have not recorder any fatality even though the videos and pictures circulating social media state otherwise. The army has not issued a statement on events in Lekki, but in several posts on Twitter it described media reports as “fake news”.
Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who visited hospitals on Wednesday, said about 25 people had been wounded in what he described as an “unfortunate shooting incident”.