The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says the sum N9 billion was disbursed to cause chaos in the country during the #EndBadGovernance protests.
Muyiwa Adejobi, force spokesperson, disclosed this on Wednesday during the civil space guard conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The conference tagged ‘AI, Free Press & Civil Space: Tools, Challenges and Future of Investigative Reporting’, was organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
Speaking during the conference, Adejobi said prior of the #EndBadGovernace protest, the police announced that the demonstration will be hijacked by foreign mercenaries to cause violence in the country.
The force spokesperson said due to the trust deficit in the country, many Nigerians did not believe what the police had said.
Adejobi said the police “intercepted” conversation about how some persons were “planted” to cause violence during the August nationwide protests.
He narrated how the police received intelligence and traced Andrew Wynne, a Briton, to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters in Abuja.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
The force spokesperson added that the police is training 10,000 recruits on media literacy, civic engagement and behavioural change.
On August 1, a 10-day protest against the rising cost of living commenced across major cities in the country.
The protest was largely peaceful in the south, but was marred by violence and destruction of public and private facilities in northern Nigeria.
Some protesters were seen waving Russian flags in the north, while calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “intervene”.
Some protesters were killed by security operatives during the protest with several others arrested.
