A senior police officer has been killed in Abuja during a protest by members of the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria Shiite Islamic in Abuja.
PRNigeria, a news agency with close ties to security agencies, named the slain police officer as Umar Usman,
Mr Usman was the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations.
The otherwise peaceful protest by the Shiites turned violent on Monday.
The protesters alleged that the rally was peaceful while marching to the federal secretariat until they were shot at.
The police are yet to officially react to the death of the officer.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, was seen at the State House where he briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday’s protest.
When contacted, the Abuja police spokesperson referred all correspondence to Frank Mba, the spokesperson at the Force Headquarters.
Mr Mba, when contacted, said he would release a statement on the matter soon.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has however confirmed that the protesters burnt down two of its ambulances
at the Agency’s Emergency Response and Ambulance Bays (ERABs) in Abuja.
The Shiites are demanding the release of their leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention since December 2015.
Head of Media and Public Relations of NEMA, Sani Datti, made this known in a statement in Abuja.
“This is to confirm that ERABs of the NEMA located on Ahmadu Bello Way beside the federal secretariat was attacked today with two vehicles burnt down.
”The attack was carried out by members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria commonly known as Shiites.” he said.
Mr Datti explained that the affected vehicles were the Mobile Intensive Care Unit, which was a life support ambulance, and a multi-purpose Response Intervention Van.
According to him, the ERABs were situated at the location for timely response to emergencies and disasters to reduce the loss of lives and property.
He said the Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, had while inspecting the damage, noted that the burnt equipment were very expensive and would cost taxpayers a lot of money to replace.
The protesters clashed with security agencies close to the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
Monday’s incident comes about two weeks after two Shiites were killed and two police officers injured after a similar protest turned violent at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
The Shiites are demanding the release of their leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention for alleged murder since December 2015.
On Monday, the Shiites had begun a protest at Nitel junction and were expected to end at the secretariat.
It is not clear at what point the initially peaceful protest turned violent. The Shiites, however, claim they were attacked by the police.
Since the incident, the Shiites have been sharing images of badly injured members on social media.
