UPDATE 3-Nigerian police mobilize to quell worst unrest in two decades

* Amnesty says 12 protesters killed in Lagos on Tuesday
* Millions of Nigerians currently living under curfew
* Buhari is a former military ruler voted into office in
2015

(Adds Kaduna curfew, shooting victim, bullets)
By Felix Onuah and Angela Ukomadu
ABUJA/LAGOS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Nigeria's police chief
ordered the immediate mobilisation of all force resources on
Saturday to try to control the worst street violence in Africa's
most populous country in two decades stemming from protests
against police brutality.
The unrest, unprecedented since the 1999 return to civilian
rule, is the most serious political crisis confronting President
Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler elected in 2015.
Curfews have been imposed on millions of people in recent days
in response to violence and looting in parts of the country.
Violence, particularly in the commercial capital Lagos,
escalated after demonstrators were shot on Tuesday night in the
city's Lekki district during a round-the-clock curfew.
Witnesses blamed soldiers.
Rights group Amnesty International said soldiers and police
had killed at least 12 protesters in two districts, though the
army and police denied any involvement.
Several states, mostly in southern Nigeria, have imposed
curfews after two weeks of confrontations between protesters and
members of the security services.
As pockets of unrest flared again on Saturday in parts of
the country, a spokesman for southern Cross River state said
several buildings had been vandalised over the last two days
including a shopping mall, a bank and electoral offices.
A round-the-clock curfew was reimposed on parts of the
central city of Jos, just a day after it was relaxed on Friday,
following the looting of emergency food supplies stored there by
the disasters ministry, authorities said.
"This looting has spread to other facilities and is
gradually degenerating thereby threatening the peace and
security of the state," the governor of Plateau state, Simon
Lalong, said in a statement.
And a round-the-clock curfew was imposed in the northern
state of Kaduna on Saturday. The move was to "protect lives and
property and contain criminal elements", state security
commissioner Samuel Aruwan said in a statement.
The Nigeria Police Force said its inspector general Mohammed
Adamu had ordered the immediate deployment of all assets and
resources to end violence, looting and destruction of property
by criminals masquerading as protesters.
"The IGP enjoins law-abiding citizens not to panic but
rather join forces with the police and other members of the law
enforcement community to protect their communities from the
criminal elements," the force said in a statement.
During a call on Friday between Buhari and former Nigerian
presidents, the head of state said 51 civilian fatalities and 37
injuries had been recorded as a result of "hooliganism" in
recent weeks, according to a statement released on Saturday
outlining his opening remarks.
Unrest escalated in parts of Nigeria after the shooting of
the protesters who gathered in Lagos on Tuesday night in
defiance of a curfew to demonstrate against police brutality.
Olusegun Samuel, the guardian of one protester who was shot
at that demonstration, said on Saturday that the 24-year-old may
have his right leg amputated due to a severe wound.
"It is a very painful issue; very, very painful issue. A
young boy of his age," said Samuel, speaking at a Lagos
hospital.
David Ivwrogbo was working as a truck driver at a railway
construction site when the curfew was announced on Tuesday. He
said he was not part of the protest, and was trying to reach
home when he was also shot in the leg. He said he was dragged to
safety by demonstrators.
"The youths are awake and they don't want to go back to
sleep," he said, referring to frustrated young people who have
taken to Nigeria's streets in the wake of the campaign against
police brutality.
Lagos state eased curfew restrictions on Saturday to 6
p.m.-8 a.m. Workers took to streets to sweep away broken glass
while cars again filled the roads.