Personnel of the New York Police Department were deployed to keep order at the Nigerian House, Kudirat Abiola Corner, Manhattan Friday evening as members of the Yoruba Nation and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) invaded the premises protesting against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The detachment of law enforcement officers had a hard time keeping the crowd in check as they vented their anger against any person perceived to be a government official present in the area.
Some of the important personalities they hounded included the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, one of his predecessors in office, Babagana Kingibe, and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar.
The protesters were initially calm as they even mingled with pro-administration protesters on the opposite side of the road for most of the time.
However, as the day went by, they sneaked across the road and started to confront any person in sight outside the lobby of the Consulate.
They chanted expletives on anyone they saw including people who were not connected to the government but just happened to be present at the building.
The protesters accused them of being aiders and abetters of Fulani herdsmen who they accused of killing members of other tribes in the country.
At a point, Nigerian security agents and members of staff at the Consulate confronted the protesters, almost resulting in a fisticuff exchange.
The police quickly arrived and created a wooden cordon around the entrance of the building.
They thereafter prevailed on the protesters to maintain their distance behind the cordon as they continued to express their anger at the state of the nation.
They carried banners with various inscriptions including: “Break up Nigeria to save lives, Buhari is a life patron of Fulani terrorists, Fulani pose an existential threat to indigenous sub-Saharan Africans,
“Fulani are terrorists, Free Sowore, drop all charges against him,
“Stop giving loans to the Nigerian government, End Fulani terrorism in Nigeria.”
The pro and anti-Buhari protests were a constant feature throughout the duration of President Buhari’s participation at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The pro-government protesters who congregated under the name of “One Nigeria” carried out their solidarity marches around the Nigerian Consulate daily, stressing the need for the country to remain as one.
They also carried posters, which affirmed that the claim of killings and marginalization were propaganda against the country. (Saturday Tribune)
