Lekki military shootings: America’s Joe Biden sends ‘strong message’ to Buhari

The United States of America’s presidential candidate in November election, Joe Biden has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop Nigeria military from killing citizens protesting EndSARS in Nigeria.

His reaction was precipitated by the military’s invasion of protesters at the Lekki part of Lagos where scores of protesters were alledgedly killed by the military.

Biden, who was the Vice President and the Democratic candidate, in a statement titled, ‘Violence in Nigeria – Statement by Vice President Joe Biden’ on Wednesday”, maintained that crackdown on citizens was anti-democratic.

According to him, the United States must stand with Nigerians who are peacefully demonstrating for police reform and seeking an end to corruption and other forms of.bad governance.

Part of the statement read: “I urge President Buhari and the Nigerian military to cease the violent crackdown on protesters in Nigeria, which has already resulted in several deaths. My heart goes out to all those who have lost a loved one in the violence.

“The United States must stand with Nigerians who are peacefully demonstrating for police reform and seeking an end to corruption in their democracy. I encourage the government to engage in a good-faith dialogue with civil society to address these long-standing grievances and work together for a more just and inclusive Nigeria.”

‘Thousands of youths have in the last two weeks been protesting against police harassment and extrajudicial killings.”

Lekki’s attack was one of the several ones against protesters in major States of the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, Senator Adamu Aliero representing Kebbi Central Senatorial district has urged government to be brutal, if the EndSARS protesters declined to be pacified by government.

Contributing to a point of order which was raised by Senator Biodun Olujimi expressing concerns over the dangerous dimension of the protest, Aliero, a former governor of Kebbi State said government shouldn’t sit watching things go wrong, but government should do all it could to contain EndSARS protesters.