Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, has said that N9 billion was raised to cause chaos in Nigeria during the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests.
He made this claim on Wednesday at the Civil Space Guard conference in Abuja, organized by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in collaboration with the Kingdom of Netherlands.
The End Bad Governance demonstrations, widely known by the hashtags #EndBadGovernance or #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria, were an array of decentralized mass protests in Nigeria that mainly took place from 1 August to 10 August 2024, instigated by the rising cost of living in the country.
In the southern part of the country, the protest was largely peaceful but was marred by sheer violence and destruction of public and private properties in northern Nigeria.
During the demonstrations, a number protesters were seen waving Russian flags in the north, while calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “inervene”.
However, whilst speaking at the conference, the Force PRO said prior to the protest, the police announced that the demonstration will be hijacked by foreign mercenaries to wreak havoc, but unfortunately, a lot of Nigerians did not believe.
He said: “We always get information. I made a statement on behalf of the IGP that foreign machineries would come. But because of trust deficit, people always think we lie when we say certain things.
“People were trying to protest and express their feelings to the government. Some people were trying to capitalise on that to get money. They actually got money — we are talking about N9 billion.
“I’m sure you are not aware that somebody got money. Because of that protest alone, people realised N9 billion and they actually disbursed the money to cause chaos in Nigeria.”