A popular musician, Charles Oputa, popularly called Charly Boy, who has been leading a campaign for the return or resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, has been attacked.
Charly Boy was attacked in Wuse Market by angry protesters who are believed to be supporters of the president, witnesses told PREMIUM TIMES.
The musician and his fellow campaigners were last week attacked by security officials who dispersed them violently from the Unity fountain, also in Abuja.
“Charley Boy came to this market with some cameramen doing his protest here.
I was standing in front of my shop when I saw him running for his dear life, being chased by those youth,” a trader at the market said.
“They nearly lynched him, because those youth almost overpowered police security near him.”
The musician was rescued by security operatives who fired gunshots and tear-gas to disperse the crowd.
The security operatives later returned to remove Charly Boy’s vehicles from the market, using tear-gas to disperse the protesters who tried to stop them.
Wuse market is Abuja’s largest and is dominated by northerners, many of them supporters of President Buhari.
The gates of the market were temporarily closed and manned by heavily armed security operatives after the incident.
“Charley Boy caused it, how can he come here to be talking against Buhari.
Those Hausa boys dealt with him,” a meat seller in the market who witnessed the incident said.
President Buhari has been in London on medical vacation for about 100 days.