Federal officials are offering cash bribes to potential demonstrators in Abuja to dissuade them from joining the ongoing strife against poverty and corruption across Nigeria. 

Abuja municipal chairman Chris Maikalangu was accused of distributing N5,000 (or $3) each to a cluster of citizens as they prepared to take to the streets in the nation’s capital on Friday afternoon, witnesses said. He also reportedly threatened violence against those who insisted on exercising their rights to peaceful assembly. 

“I am (among) the persons that they gave N5,000,” a witness told reporters on Friday. “They lectured us that we shouldn’t go to protest.” It is illegal to offer bribes to deter citizens from exercising a constitutional right. 

The development marks the latest attempt by federal authorities to stymie the nationwide demonstrations. On Thursday, Peoples Gazette reported how the government hampered internet speed to suppress information flow from protest grounds.  

Mr Maikalangu’s boss, Abuja minister Nyesom Wike, has been widely ridiculed for procuring a series of dubious mandates from different judges to foreclose the popular marches, which millions are now using to muster a common front against President Bola Tinubu’s draconian economic policies. Abuja is among the key hotspots of the protests, which commenced on Thursday in Lagos, Kano and other cities. 

Mr Maikalangu did not return a request seeking clarification about whether or not he paid protesters.