The Nigeria Police have said no one was abducted during Monday’s protest by indigenous contractors at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, amid tension that erupted when demonstrators barricaded the entrance to the complex over unpaid government debts, preventing the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, from gaining access, as security operatives attempted to clear a passage for her convoy and a gunshot rang out during efforts to disperse the crowd, an incident that sparked fear among protesters who chanted, “How many people government go kill ooo… how many people government go kill,” while leaders of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria maintained that the protest was peaceful and aimed solely at demanding payment of verified obligations, with the association’s president, Jackson Nwosu, saying, “The government has failed to honour the agreement to pay contractors whose project details had been submitted and verified,” even as police authorities insisted that contrary reports, no protester was abducted during the confrontation.
