At least three protesters were killed in Nigeria's Kaduna state on Thursday, Reuters reporters and eyewitnesses said, as demonstrators rallied across the West African nation against rising cost of living and governance issues.

Kaduna state police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said the police fired tear gas at protesters and not live ammunition. Also police fired tear gas in the capital city Abuja to disperse crowds of protesters, according to eyewitness accounts.

Protesters demonstrated in Abuja, the commercial capital Lagos and several other cities to show discontent with economic reforms that have led to rampant inflation and inflicted increasing hardship on ordinary Nigerians. President Bola Tinubu has vowed to pursue the changes that he says are needed to keep the country afloat.

Authorities deployed armed security personnel in an effort to preempt potential violence.

In Lagos, armed police watched as protesters marched toward the government house and then proceeded to two locations that were authorised for the protest. Some shopping malls in the city were shut and guarded by a heavy police presence.

Inspired by protests in Kenya in June that led to the government there scrapping some planned tax increases, Nigerians are mobilizing online to demand the reinstatement of subsidies for petrol and electricity, free primary and secondary education and measures to combat insecurity, among other demands.

In Abuja, the military mounted roadblocks along the highway leading into town, while some protesters gathered at a stadium.

Youths demonstrated in the city of Maiduguri, the hotbed of a militant insurgency in the northeast of the country, in the face of a heavy security presence, to voice their frustration at the government and its policies.