Manchester United striker, Odion Ighalo has said he is ashamed of the Nigerian government after reports emerged that soldiers shot at peaceful protesters in the Lekki district of Lagos recently.
Nigerians have been protesting daily nationwide for amost two weeks against a unit of police, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which rights groups had for many years accused of gross extortion, torture, harassment and murder.
The unit was dissolved on October 11, 2020 but the protests continued and protesters were shot recently.
While expressing his displeasure at the killings, Ighalo said in a video message on Twitter that while he was not a fan of politics but he could not stay silent about deadly events back home in Nigeria.
He said: “The Nigerian government, you guys are a shame to the world for killing your own citizens, sending military to the streets to kill unarmed protesters because they are protesting for their own rights? It’s uncalled for.
“You people will be remembered in history as the first government to send the military to the city to start killing their own citizens. I am ashamed of this government, we are tired of you guys and we can’t take this anymore.”
Ighalo urged the UK government, the United Nations and world leaders to step in as “They will keep killing if the world don’t talk about this.”
