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The nationwide protest planned to call the attention of Nigerian governments to the hardship in the country took off early today in almost all state capitals. Initially it was peaceful, and commentators had hoped that it would endure but some persons in the crowd in some of the states, either for lack of understanding of the reason and procedure, negated the approach pleaded by the organisers. Residents of southeast states listened to their leaders and stayed away from the protest.
By the late afternoon, there had been some skirmishes in certain locations, a development that escalated before the evening period.

For instance, in Abuja, the federal capital territory protesters who had congregated at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, as approved by the court and released by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, left the stadium and headed for the Eagle Square. They were escorted by the police until they got to the Square where the police already stationed there denied them entry. Days before the protest started, the FCT authorities had said that the Square would not be made available for the protest but that protesters should use the stadium.
The police had to shoot tear gas to disperse the protesters.
That was not the only place where the agreed venue had been ignored by the protesters. They also shunned the Ojota venue of the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, until later that day, and congregated at the Ikeja under bridge in Lagos State. So far, reports say there are no incidents in Lagos, where the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had been apprehensive that there could be a repeat of the carnage recorded in 2020 during the #endsars protest.
But the story is different in Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Edo, where supposed protesters either went into a bloody conflict with the police or looted public and private properties and even carried out arson.
