Nigeria soldiers burn buses after crash

Nigerian soldiers burned several buses in Lagos, blocked roads and fired shots in the air after a soldier was killed in a bus accident, officials have said.

“The rampaging soldiers already burnt five buses,” Femi Oke-Osanyitolu, the director general of the National Emergency Management Agency for Lagos state, told the Reuters news agency on Friday.

There were no deaths or injuries in the incident, he added.

The soldiers were reacting to the death of one of their number hit by a bus while riding a motorcycle, Oke-Osanyitolu said. It was not clear who caused the accident.

“The governor of the state is currently talking with the superior officers of the army to restore order,” he added.

Disturbances continued for several hours from the morning into the afternoon.

Local television stations broadcast pictures of the buses in flames. People fled and shops closed as soldiers fired in the air.

“They were armed to the teeth, we are all afraid, everybody was afraid of stray bullets because the soldiers were shooting sporadically to scare away people,” said Bunmi Ajayi, a book publisher who had to shut his office.

Another witness, Segun Alabi, said soldiers were blocking buses and and destroying people’s smartphones to prevent witnesses filming them.

Nigeria has been a democracy since shortly after the death of military ruler Sani Abacha in 1998, but rights groups say abuses and indiscipline by its troops remain a problem, especially in the remote northeast, where the army faces a rebellion led by Boko Haram.