A young girl has been shot dead in Lagos after police officers open live rounds into protesters seeking an independent nation for Yoruba people.

President Muhammadu Buhari and his security chiefs and ministers have warned repeatedly that separatist agitations will be met with brutal force. On Friday, national security adviser Babagana Monguno said the president had approved a list of people to be targeted for their secessionist activities.

People of Southern Nigeria, led by the two major tribes Yoruba and Igbo, have intensified their campaign to secede from Nigeria following widespread allegations of corruption, targeted killings and tribalism against the Buhari regime. Mr Buhari denied that his government is corrupt and said his appointments are not lopsided in favour of his northern Fulani people.

As protests Yoruba nation raged across Lagos on Saturday, the police fired live rounds to disperse crowds around Ojota, killing a young woman and wounding several people. A picture of a protester who was killed by police bullets was posted on Saturday afternoon by Sahara Reporters.

The young woman appeared to be in her trading shop when she was fatally hit. Social media reports said she was only 14-year-old. The specific location of the shooting was not immediately clear. A spokesman for the police in Lagos did not immediately return a request seeking comment about the fatal shooting.

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