The Nigeria Police on Saturday, February 13 brutally suppressed a protest by #EndSARS protesters. Protesters gathering at the Lekki Tollgate, venue of what is referred to as #EndSARS Lekki Shooting by security personnel in October 2020, were brutally beaten by security operatives as they mobilised for the protest. The protest was organised to challenge the planned re-opening of the Lekki Tollgate by the Lekki Concession Company (LCC). The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality and the shooting of #EndSARS protesters had in a controversial decision of 5-4, granted control of the tollgate to the operators, LCC. This was met with heavy criticism from Nigerians, who argued that the tollgate should remain closed while the shooting of protesters that occurred at the venue in October 2020 is addressed and brought to a meaningful conclusion. Many perceived the move to re-open the tollgate as an insensitive one that will ultimately sweep the shooting incident under the rug, without any form of accountability. The outcry against the decision soon culminated in a social media mobilisation for a protest to stop the proposed re-opening of the tollgate, with the hashtag “#OccupyLekkiTollGate.” On Friday, February 12 a day before the planned protest, there were reports of heavy police presence at the Lekki Tollgate, in a show of force, to prevent protesters from converging at the venue. However, some protesters made their way to the venue despite calls by the government, the police and the LCC to refrain from holding the protest for fear that it may be hijacked by hoodlums. These demonstrators, numbering about 40 were promptly arrested and whisked away by the police. Although they were later released, some of the protesters disclosed that they were beaten and their mobile phones taken away and destroyed.
Observers have criticised the Nigerian government for muzzling citizens’ rights to hold a peaceful protest, with others asking if the high numbers of police personnel deployed to stop the protest, could not have regulated a peaceful protest if one had been allowed to hold.
In a related development, five members of the Anambra State Judicial Panel on the #EndSARS Protests and Police Brutality, resigned, stating that the government was not ready to genuinely address the concerns of citizens on police brutality. Although the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigeria Police, which was known for its highhandedness has been disbanded, reports of police brutality continue to rise.