The spokesman for Nigeria’s internal intelligence service said that they had “arrested in Kano State some tailors responsible for the manufacture of Russian flags distributed in the region.”
Nigerian police said Tuesday they had arrested more than 90 protesters waving Russian flags, as the country entered its sixth day of protests sparked by the country’s economic woes.
Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi told French news agency AFP that More than 90 protesters “were detained with Russian flags”.
In a statement posted on social media, the spokesperson for Nigeria’s Internal Intelligence Service (DSS) said the DSS had “arrested some tailors in Kano State responsible for the manufacturing of Russian flags distributed in the region,” and that it was conducting an investigation.
Thousands of people have gathered in Nigeria since Thursday to Protest against rising prices and bad government.at a time when Africa’s most populous country is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation.
According to the Spanish agency EFE, a total of 873 people have been arrested so faraccording to authorities.
The protests have eased in the days following the police crackdown, but hundreds of demonstrators still took to the streets on Monday in northern states, namely Kaduna, Katsina and Kano, as well as in Plateau state, in the centre of the country.
AFP journalists and witnesses saw Some protesters waving Russian flags.a gesture strongly condemned by the head of the Nigerian army.
Northern Nigeria has close cultural, religious and socio-economic ties with neighbouring countries in the Sahel region, which have recently seen a series of coups led by Russia’s military allies.
“Individuals who train others to transport Russian flags in Nigeria, to the sovereignty of Nigeria, are to cross the red line and we will not oil them,” said the Chief of the State-Maior of the Army, General Christopher Musa, at a briefing in Abuja, na Monday.
The Russian embassy in Nigeria denied any involvement in the case. “The Government of the Russian Federation and Russian officials are not involved in these activities and do not coordinate them in any way,” the embassy said in a statement posted on its website.
“The intentions of some protesters to wave Russian flags are personal choices and do not in any way reflect the official position or policy of the Russian government on this issue,” he added.
Last week, the The NGO Amnesty International accused the police of killing at least 13 protesters on the first day of protestswhile Nigerian police claimed seven people had died, denying any responsibility.
In a televised address on Sunday, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu called for an end to the protests and an “end to the bloodshed”But protest organizers vowed to continue the mobilization.
The cost of living in Nigeria has been increasing since the president came to power in May 2023, with Inflation reaches historic high of 33.95% last June.
This situation has pushed up the prices of basic commodities such as rice, maize and yams, making them unaffordable for many Nigerians.
All of Tinubu’s measures, such as free distribution of cereals and raising the minimum wage, have failed to mitigate the impact on the population of measures such as the elimination of fuel subsidies.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa (over 213 million people) and also one of its main oil producers, as well as one of the largest economies on the continent.
However, Four out of ten Nigerians live below the poverty lineaccording to the World Bank.
Inflation is one of the causes of the severe malnutrition crisis in the northern states of the country, which has led to an “unprecedented increase in admissions of severely malnourished children” with potentially fatal complications, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported last June.
Source: Observadora
