Violence: Sanwo-Olu orders clean up of Lagos

For those who don't know, Nigerians are now embroiled in a protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, a unit that has been criticized for using brutal methods and unlawful tactics against citizens.

"Your voice has been heard loud and clear and we are responding", he said.

In response to criticism from fellow African heads of state and other world leaders, Buhari called on them "to seek to know all the facts available before taking a position, or rushing to judgment and making hasty pronouncements".

"With this speech, it is confirmed we are on our own. Sad", posted Henry Okechukwu. The squad was originally launched to fight crime.

The #EndSARS campaign spread across the country and Buhari's government announced that it would disband the SARS unit.

The city of 20 million is under a round-the-clock curfew imposed after almost two weeks of protests against police brutality - the West African nation's biggest wave of unrest since the end of military rule in 1999.

Amnesty International said in a report that at least 12 people were killed and hundreds more were severely injured on Tuesday night when Nigerian security forces opened fire without warning on two large gatherings of peaceful protesters in parts of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.

"Evidence gathered from eyewitnesses, video footage and hospital reports confirm that between 6:45pm (4:45am AEDT) and 9:00pm (07:00am AEDT) on Tuesday 20 October, the Nigerian military opened fire on thousands of people", Amnesty said in a statement. Police battled angry crowds with tear gas and gunfire.

"Soldiers clearly had one intention - to kill without consequences", Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International in Nigeria, said in a statement Wednesday night, alongside the release of the report. He did not describe the nature of the disturbance or say if anyone had been killed.

In other parts of Lagos, a sprawling city of 14 million people, streets were empty and shops were shuttered, as residents largely obeyed a government curfew meant to curb the chaos.

According to him, the attacks were specifically targeted at emergency response infrastructure of the state to weaken its response in the case of large-scale violence.

"In the circumstances, I would like to appeal to protesters to note and take advantage of the various well-thought-out initiatives of this administration created to make their lives better and more meaningful", he said.

Black Lives Matter activists in the USA issued a statement Thursday in support of Nigeria's anti-police brutality protesters.

The #EndSARS protesters claim "these criminal elements, these criminals have been financed by the government to basically hijack the protests", Fascar added.

"From now, moving forward is to say that we need to continue to heal ourselves, we need to continue to talk to ourselves, and we need to advise and implore some of our citizens that are still using social media to instigate, or to ask people to stand up again, or to incite the citizens, young men, I need to say that enough is enough, we need to heal ourselves".