The police have said that Nigerians might have mistaken the sounds of tear gas canisters being fired for live ammunition.

This was stated on Monday by the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today program.

The clarification came after human rights activist Omoyele Sowore alleged that police had used live rounds on protesters participating in the Free Nnamdi Kanu movement.

However, the police spokesman insisted that nobody was harmed or injured and that the police successfully achieved their mandate by dispersing the protesters.

He said: “Now talking about live ammunition, I can say, I can state it categorically, authoritatively, that no live ammunition was fired today. Not a single live ammunition.

“It’s very easy for people who are not familiar with the sounds to mistake the firing of tear gas for live ammunition. It makes the same popping sound, the explosion-like sound, but I can say it on good authority that no live ammunition was fired.

“Well, if you talk about tear gas canisters being picked up off the floor, yes, I would agree, but I’m yet to see. But I’m also confirming again that there was no live ammunition fired at the protesters.
“We gave enough warning for those people to step back and not go beyond where they were. However, they were adamant, and they were determined to approach these areas, so we simply conformed to standard operating procedures.

“Our SOP is to use minimal force that is commensurate with the resistance we are getting. And we used tear gas. That was the least that we could do. Nobody was harmed or injured, and we were able to successfully achieve our mandate and disperse the protesters.”