… Curfew may be lifted Friday or Saturday — Sanwo-Olu
The unrest and the authorities’ increasingly heavy-handed response has begun to unnerve financial markets, with the naira dropping as much as 1.2 per cent against the dollar on Thursday, the most of any African currency.
But the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said, if the calm witnessed continued, the 24 hour curfew may be lifted on Friday or Saturday.
The risk premium that investors demand to hold Nigeria’s dollar debt rather than U.S. Treasuries has widened 21 basis points this week, while the average for African nations narrowed two basis points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes.
Sterling Bank Plc closed all its offices in Lagos after three bank branches were set alight this week, Chief Executive Officer Abubakar Suleiman told Bloomberg by phone.
“We will not open until we are 100 per cent certain we are not putting the lives of workers at risk,” he said. “Until the streets are safe, there is no business for anyone.”
Most of the demonstrators are young adults, who don’t appear to have a clearly defined leadership structure and communicate using social media — which the government says has frustrated efforts to negotiate with them.
Buhari called for calm on Wednesday and reiterated his government’s commitment to policing reforms.
“The government has to start building trust through concrete steps,” said Nelson Olanipekun, the founder of Citizens Gavel, an organization that provides legal support to victims of police brutality. “The first thing will be to investigate those responsible for the Lekki massacre.”
The governor of Lagos, at the epicenter of protests over police brutality, said a 24-hour curfew may be eased as tensions abate following more than two weeks of upheaval.
“Once we see the streets are cleared up and all the agitation and high nerves have gone down,” the lockdown may be relaxed on Friday or Saturday, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said in an interview on Arise TV on Thursday.
Demonstrations that erupted on October 5 and have spread to about half of Nigeria’s 36 states pose the most serious challenge yet to President Muhammadu Buhari’s authority and have dealt another blow to an economy that was already reeling from the coronavirus. At least 56 people have died so far, according to human rights group Amnesty International. The government hasn’t provided a death toll.
Violence peaked on Oct. 20 when about 38 people died, including 12 who were killed after security forces opened fire on protesters who’d gathered at two sites in Lagos, in defiance of the curfew, Amnesty said, citing witnesses.
The security force’s actions “clearly amount to extra-judicial executions,” Osai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director, said in a statement on Wednesday night. Closed-circuit television cameras were dismantled to cover up the killings in the Lekki district, the group said.
While the Nigerian army’s Twitter page labeled reports that troops had fired on protesters as “fake news,” Sanwo-Olu said he’s ordered a probe into the conduct of the military, which falls under the federal government’s control.
He’s confirmed that one person died of their injuries. President Mohammadu Buhari is yet to comment on the allegations against the army.
He summoned his top security officials, including the defense minister, the chief of police and the head of the army, to a meeting on Thursday morning, Bashir Ahmad, the president’s personal assistant, said on Twitter.
