{"id":32102,"date":"2019-07-10T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=32102"},"modified":"2019-07-10T11:14:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T03:14:43","slug":"nigerias-national-assembly-on-lockdown-after-shooting-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=32102","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria’s National Assembly on lockdown after shooting – police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\u00a9<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Police officers stand guard outside the National Assembly <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABUJA, July 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nigeria’s National Assembly was on lockdown on Tuesday after shots were fired outside during clashes between police and a group of Shi’ite protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both sides blamed the other for the shooting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, police said two officers were shot and wounded in the legs, and six other officers were injured by individuals using clubs and stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Abdullahi Muhammad Musa, a member of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), said that police fired the shots, killing two protesters, after they peacefully tried to enter the assembly building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMN, a group that represents Nigeria’s minority Shi’ite Muslims, has protested regularly outside the National Assembly, calling for the release of their leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been in detention since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigerian security forces have killed some 400 members of the group in response to largely peaceful protests since 2015, according to human rights groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police said they had arrested 40 protesters during Tuesday’s incident. The assembly remained on lockdown as of late afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, the police force said they had “used minimum force to disperse the unruly protesters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnesses said police used tear gas against the protesters. Smoke could be seen coming from the area and security would not let anyone into the building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s leader el-Zakzaky was incarcerated by successive military governments. In 2015, a coordinated military operation to capture him at IMN’s headquarters in the town of Zaria, 269km north of Abuja, killed and wounded hundreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El-Zakzaky\u00a0has remained in detention with his wife since and a number of court orders instructing the government to release them have gone unheeded.\u00a0A\u00a0presidential spokesman has told the press<\/a>\u00a0the IMN leader was being kept in custody “for his own safety”. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police officers stand guard outside the National Assembly ABUJA, July 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nigeria’s National Assembly was on lockdown on Tuesday after shots were fired outside during clashes between police and a group of Shi’ite protesters. Both sides blamed the other for the shooting. In a statement, police said two officers were shot and wounded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32102"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}