Several witnesses at the event told Sahara Reporters that a group of homeless men hired from the streets of Newark, New Jersey, clashed with another pro-Jonathan group made up of Nigerians from the New York area. A fracas broke out when some of the homeless hirelings feared that members of the Nigerian group were planning to hijack the payment of $50 per person the organizers promised to pay them.
As a melee ensued, the police stepped in and arrested some of the pro-Jonathan hirelings fighting over the sharing of booty.
Investigation revealed that the trouble began when the group of homeless supporters rented by the organizers demanded their payment shortly after arriving at the venue. As they were pressing for payment, they noticed that a group of Nigerians had taken to chanting pro-Jonathan slogans.
Afraid that the Nigerians had been brought in to deny them the payment they had been promised, the homeless group began chanting Bring back our girls...
the slogan of a campaign that urges Nigerian government officials to take seriously the task of rescuing over 200 schoolgirls who were abducted from a school in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram.
Embarrassed by their song, which they took up from a group of demonstrators, the handlers of the rented crowd made frantic efforts to coach them on the scene to sing President Jonathan’s praises.
New York police intervened after some members of the rented crowd got in a free-for-all scuffle with some of the members of the Nigerians-dominated pro-Jonathan group. As the situation threatened to cause a breakdown of law and order, police officers swung into action and arrested four of them in handcuffs.
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