Nigerian youths held memorial protests in Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday, one year after security forces violently suppressed mass protests against police brutality and bad governance.
Under heavy police watch, dozens of protesters rallied in a procession of cars waving green and white national flags from windows at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos, the site of the crackdown on last year’s #EndSARS demonstrations.
Police deployed at Lekki allowed the cars to pass through the tollgate as protesters blasted horns and chanted for justice. At least six people were arrested at Lekki though the main highway was not blocked by protesters, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene. EndSARS, remember them, remember them,” shouted one man from inside a police van after he was detained.
Last year’s rallies began over brutality by the SARS police unit but snowballed into protests over bad governance in the largest mass demonstrations in Nigeria’s modern history. We are not worried, this time is going to be peaceful, no fight, no quarrel, no nothing, except if the government wants.
Messages calling on youths to rally in the capital Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt to “honour the memory of the victims” have been shared tens of thousands of times across social networks. The crackdown at Lekki tollgate was live-streamed on social media and Amnesty International has since said it has confirmed that at least 10 people were killed.
The Nigerian army denied shooting live rounds, telling a judicial panel only blanks were used to disperse a crowd that had violated a curfew.
The protest movement is named after the social media hashtag #EndSARS, a reference to the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit that was later disbanded. In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday that victims were still awaiting justice.
It said it had interviewed 54 people, including victims and their family members, protesters, civil society members, doctors and journalists.
The rights group was unable to confirm a death toll but witnesses told researchers they saw “what appeared to be at least 15 lifeless bodies and that military officers had taken away at least 11. Failure to pursue justice will strengthen the culture of impunity and reinforce the perceptions that brought protesters to the streets in the first place,” said HRW researcher Anietie Ewang.
Source: eNCA
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