Young Nigerians asked the government to #EndSARS. They lost their lives instead
Protests calling for the disbandment of a rogue unit of the Nigerian Police Force – the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), notorious for killing, extorting and harassing young Nigerians continued across Nigeria on Tuesday October 20, 2020, but turned gory later in the evening in Lagos as soldiers deployed to the Lekki toll gate opened fire on unarmed protesters.
Live footage monitored by Neusroom on the Instagram page of Nigerian disk jockey, DJ Switch, showed unarmed protesters in the pool of their blood and reports say about nine have been shot dead.
The shootings streamed live on DJ Switch Instagram page had over 150,000 people watching from different parts of the world on Tuesday evening. It highlighted the extrajudicial killings by Nigerian security operatives that sparked the protests that have lasted for more than 10 days across major cities in the country.
After the shooting which lasted for about one hour, one of the soldiers could be heard ordering the protesters to go home and not risk their lives.
There have been reports of violence in some parts of the state which the state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu cited as the reason for imposing a 24-hour curfew from 4pm on Tuesday. The government later announced an extension to 9pm.
Despite reports of violence in some parts of Lagos, protests at the Lekki toll gate, regarded as the headquarters of the EndSARS protest, have, however, been peaceful since the protests started.
When the shooting started around 7pm, the curfew which had been moved to 9pm was yet to commence.
But the Nigerian army, which had issued veiled and direct threats since the protests began, took over streets in parts of Lagos, especially in Alausa near the governor’s office, and in Lekki where they shot at peaceful protesters.
The world watched as helpless youths attempted to remove bullets from one citizen, even as another appeared to give up life. Yet these were not the first instances of government violence since the protests started.
On Saturday October 10, 2020, Jimoh Ishaq was killed while watching the protests from a distance, in Ogbomoso, in Oyo State. At least over 20 have been killed since then, almost all of them by men of the Nigerian Police Force.
Amnesty International says it “wishes to remind the authorities that under international law, security forces may only resort to the use of lethal force when strictly unavoidable to protect against imminent threat of death or serious injury.”
