One of our correspondents, who was covering the protest and streaming it on Facebook Live, also ran for cover as the security operatives bombarded the demonstration ground.
Also, the men of the Lagos State Police Command on Saturday morning fired tear gas canisters at the protesters who gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos, venue of the June 12 Democracy Day protest.
The protesters were demanding an end to bad governance when they were tear-gassed by the security operatives.
Several digital flyers, widely circulated on social media on Friday, had publicised meeting points in Lagos, Gombe, Calabar (Cross River), Yola (Adamawa), Bauchi, Abeokuta (Ogun), Yenagoa (Bayelsa), Port Harcourt (Rivers), Ibadan (Oyo), Ilorin (Kwara), Enugu, Akure (Ondo), Yobe, and Zaria (Kaduna).
One poster by #RevolutionNow read, “Join the June 12 protest. No more poverty, hunger and insecurity in Nigeria… Enough Is Enough! Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.”
Another poster for a protest in Kaiserslautern, Germany read, “Buhari must go! Let’s come together to say no to government funding terrorism: Boko Haram terrorism and banditry, one litre of petrol equals N165, bad roads, poor hospitals, kidnapping, economic recession, police brutality, disregard for the rule of law, poor health sector, poor education.”
Similar flyers targeted at protesters in New York (US), Kaduna State and the Federal Capital Territory listed the same points but added, “N30,000 minimum wage, N13.5m senators’ salary, Nigeria is over N30tn in debt.”