Two-year-old girl shot in the head in Police/Shi’ites clash in Kano
A two-year-old girl is reportedly one of the casualties of the brutal clash between the police and protesting Shi’ites in Kano on Monday.
Accusations and counter accusations have been flying since the incident on Monday, with the latest being the sect’s allegation that the police shot sporadically at them without any confrontation.
The police, in its report, had said the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) members advocating for the release of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky became confrontational and aggressive in their approach, prompting policemen to open fire to subdue them.
An IMN leader, Sanusi Abdulkadir has however refuted the claim, saying the police employed extreme attack in disrupting the peaceful protest.
“They (police) began by throwing teargas canisters and minutes later started firing live bullets, injuring and killing several people,” Abdulkadir told reporters at the IMN headquarters in Kano on Tuesday.
“We have eight dead bodies with us including a two-year old girl shot in the head. It is difficult to give a tentative death toll because the information reaching us is scary,” Abdulkadir said.
He also said many of their members numbering about “40 dead bodies including men, women and children were taken to the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital morgue.”
Abdulkadir said some persons can’t be immediately accounted for as “the police quickly went and took the bodies away, so we don’t know where they took them.” He estimated that more than 50 of his members could have been killed in the violence with at least 30 others injured.
