Police attack protesters against President with teargas, water cannons

One protester was reportedly injured in Abuja on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, after riot police fired gas canisters and water cannons at a group protesting against President Muhammadu Buhari.

The protesters had been participating in a second day of protests against President Buhari's continued absence from the country's seat of power.

According to The Punch, they were having a sit-out protest at the Millennium Park opposite the Unity Fountain, Maitama, Abuja, when the canisters were fired to disperse them.

Former social media director of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Deji Adeyanju, claimed on his Twitter account that the group was attacked by "over 120 policemen" who shot at them with teargas, water cannons, as well as set dogs on them.

He posted on his Twitter handle "Over 120 policemen attacked about 10 of us. They used teargas, water cannon & dogs but there's NO GOING BACK. We continue tomorrow."

The injured protester was rushed to the Federal Staff Clinic Federal Secretariat, with the extent of his injury unknown.

On Monday, August 7, protesters of the Our Mumu Don Do movement, led by entertainer and activist Charles Oputa (Charly Boy), marched from Unity Fountain in the Federal Capital Territory down to the Presidential Villa.

The group demanded that the absentee president, who left the country 93 days ago, should return home soon or resign from his position.

The protesters' full demands are that, "the president either personally or through his aides make the true detail of his health known to all Nigerians; that president should address all Nigerians in a language we can all understand on the true state of his health and other national issues; that he returns to the country and resume work as president of Federal Republic of Nigeria in order to lead us out economic and security quagmire we have been pushed into as a nation; if President Buhari fails, refuses and/ or neglect to do any of the above , then he should resign from office; if he fails to honourably resign, then he should be impeached from office by the national assembly."

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President Buhari left the country on May 7 to resume treatment in London for an undisclosed illness, leaving Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in charge of the country's affairs.

77 days after he left the country, pictures of him finally surfaced online when he met with state governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on July 23, at the Abuja House in London.

Since then, he has met with another delegation of Nigerian governors, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on Friday, August 4.

The president and his team have insisted that his return is imminent, but there has been no confirmed date.