Outrage and anger in Nigeria continue to grow as the #EndSARS protests expand and contend with outright violence from the Nigerian army and police force, according to The Associated Press, New York Times and social media reports.  

As Blavity previously reported, peaceful protesters have been incensed since army officials opened fire on them on Tuesday at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, killing at least seven people under the shroud of darkness, according to local news outlet Punch. Dozens of other protesters were killed across the country that same day, the newspaper reported. 

The violence, covered extensively on social media, has largely been ignored by Nigerian elected officials and even president Muhammadu Buhari, who made no mention of it during his address to the nation on Thursday night. 

Thursday was Buhari's first appearance since the Lekki Gate shooting, but he only tacitly mentioned the actions of his armed forces, only threatening protesters to not continue their demonstrations.

Amnesty International pegged the death toll at 12, according to the Guardian, while the New York Times reported that anonymous police officers told them 11 people had been killed. Protesters at the scene who were livestreaming said there were many bodies, some of which were whisked away by the army after the shooting. 

“I would like to appeal to protesters to note and take advantage of the various well-thought-out initiatives of this administration designed to make their lives better and more meaningful, and resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos with the aim of truncating our nascent democracy,” Buhari said on Thursday.

“For you to do otherwise will amount to undermining national security and the law and order situation. Under no circumstances will this be tolerated,” he added.

The New York Times reported that both protesters and government officials agree that the demonstrations are being hijacked by violent elements but disagree on who is doing the hijacking.

In an op-ed for the newspaper, famous author and novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote about her experience visiting the country for her father's funeral in recent days. She noted that like Buhari, the Lagos State government has said that protesters are violent. But she disputed this notion considering the history of the country. 

"Protesters know they have everything to lose in a country like Nigeria where the mere hint of violence gives free reign to murderous security forces. Nigeria’s political culture is steeped in state-sponsored thuggery. Politicians routinely hire thugs to cause chaos, especially during elections, and many people believed that thugs had been hired to compromise the protests," she wrote, sharing a video taken recently of government vehicles transporting armed men to protests.

"On social media, videos that attested to this — of thugs getting into SUVs that belonged to the government, of hardened and hungry young men admitting they were paid to join the protests and become violent. Still, the protesters persisted," Adichie wrote.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu agreed that the protests had been taken over by violent elements but said that security forces were simply trying to contain the violence. 

Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Manga told France24 that armed protesters had descended upon a prison and forcibly released 1,993 inmates. 

“Most of the inmates held at the centers are convicted criminals serving terms for various criminal offenses, awaiting execution or standing trial for violent crimes,” he said in a statement.

France24 also reported that police killed two people during protests in Lagos, leading to demonstrations that saw a police station burned to the ground.

According to the Associated Press, the Inspector-General of Police has deployed anti-riot police across the country, setting the stage for even more violent confrontations. 

“The force will henceforth exercise the full powers of the law to prevent any further attempt on lives and property of citizens,” the police said in a statement, adding that a curfew had been instituted.

Protesters have refused to back down, even as Buhari announced that the SARS unit would be disbanded.

Quartz Africa reporter Yomi Kazeem noted that this is the fourth time the government has said it would disband or reform the SARS unit, and many on the streets say that even if it is truly disbanded, there is little to stop the government from simply reconstituting the group under a different name. 

But regardless of the measures announced by Buhari and governors, the shooting by the army on Tuesday is weighing heavily on peaceful protesters, who still are expressing disbelief that their own fellow citizens would open fire on them as they sat and sang the national anthem.

“The whole place is blocked, there are soldiers everywhere and they came in guns blazing. Are they going to shoot all of us? The only weapon we have is the Nigerian flag,” a protester, DJ Switch, said during her livestream according to the New York Times.

"The Nigerian state has turned on its people. The only reason to shoot into a crowd of peaceful citizens is to terrorize: to kill some and make the others back down. It is a colossal and unforgivable crime," Adichie wrote for The New York Times.

"The brazenness is chilling, that the state would murder its citizens, in such an obviously premeditated way, as though certain of the lack of consequences," she added. 

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