The government and people of Nigeria are still counting their losses after the tragic halt to the #EndSARS protests by peaceful youths advocating for police reforms and improvements in the way Nigerian security officers treat citizens. The nationwide protests began on Thursday, October 8 and went on for almost two weeks, until Tuesday, October 20, when armed men invaded the focal point of the protests at Lekki toll gate in Lagos State, and opened fire on protesters. There were reports that the lights at the protest venue were abruptly switched off and the CCTV cameras taken down before the shooting of the innocent, peaceful protesters. There were casualties and reports of deaths and several injuries. The numbers of the casualties are yet to be verified. For everyone around Nigeria and the world, this was an unprecedented occurrence, vicious and unheard of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Less than 48 hours before the incident, the Nigerian Army had announced\nthat it would be commencing its \u201cOperation Crocodile Smile\u201d on the same\nday, which it described as a cyber warfare and reiterated that it was not\nrelated to the #EndSARS protests. In spite of this, the announcement has however,\nraised questions of a possible connection between the shooting of protesters\nand the military operation. Meanwhile, prior to the incident, Lagos State\nGovernor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had announced a 24-hour curfew in the State at\nabout noon, to commence at 4pm of the same day. The shooting incident\neventually occurred at about 7pm with information emerging that the State\nGovernor actually extended the commencement of the curfew from 4pm to 9pm,\nthereby raising questions as to why security operatives were even present at\nthe location in the first place, hours before the commencement of the curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nigerian Army has denied shooting at protesters in Lagos State,\nwhile the President, Muhammadu Buhari in his address on Thursday, October 22,\nmade no reference to the incident. This is an apparent contradiction to\ncellphone video recordings released by witnesses who were present at the\nshooting and captured men in military gear firing gunshots. Some of these\nwitnesses also picked up empty bullet shells from the scene. Citizens, socio-cultural\ngroups, civil society organisations and the international community have called\non the Nigerian Government to investigate the brutal killing of innocent,\npeaceful protesters in Lagos State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most observers of the #EndSARS protests point to its peaceful nature and\nthe strong solidarity exhibited by young people of different classes, who came\ntogether to express their dissatisfaction with the quality of governance in\nNigeria. Unfortunately, reports came in of attempts to infiltrate the #EndSARS\nmovement and discredit its peaceful nature by introducing thugs into it. These\nthugs attacked the peaceful protesters at their onset, with the #EndSARS\nprotesters desperately retreating from these attacks, and in some instances, resisting\nthe thugs. There was hardly any effort to protect the protesters against what\nappeared to be hired, disruptive thugs. After the violent and forceful\ndisbandment of peaceful #EndSARS protesters on the night of the Lekki killings\nby armed men, the thugs and other opportunistic persons embarked on their own\nagenda, rampaging as if awakened across the country. Indeed, they went on\nmassive looting, break-ins and burglary of the properties of government and\nprivate individuals, particularly politicians. These unscrupulous activities now\ncontinue across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Lagos, looters and vandals are reported to have vandalised a popular\ntelevision station, TVC, The Nation Newspaper office, the Federal Government\nowned Ports Authority, the Ikoyi-Lekki Tollgate, the palace of the Oba of Lagos,\ncourt complexes, police stations and shopping malls. In Cross River State, the\nprivate home of a Senator was invaded and looted. In the Federal Capital\nTerritory (FCT), warehouses in Idu Industrial layout belonging to companies and individuals were\nbroken into and looted. The looting of private and government establishments\nquickly spread to several other States \u2013 Adamawa, Oyo, Anambra, Plateau, Kogi,\nOsun, Kano, etc. The police has however, begun to arrest suspects in connection\nwith these incidents, with over 400 suspects already arrested in five States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to the shooting of protesters in Lagos State, the Edo State\nGovernment had imposed a 24-hour curfew on October 19, following a jail break\nin which over 1,900 inmates were said to have escaped. Several other States\nincluding Abia, Plateau, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra, Osun, Ondo and Delta also\nimposed curfews following the activities of hoodlums that took advantage of the\nchaos and unrest that ensued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is unclear how soon these wanton looting and banditry will come to an\nend or how soon calm and peace will return to Nigeria. What is clear however,\nis that by unleashing violence on peaceful protesters, the government has earned\nfor itself a national and international image deficit. The government lacked\nthe patience to negotiate #EndSARS protests to a peaceful end but instead,\napplied a violent and strong arm tactic to put an end to the peaceful protests.\nHow the government intends to rebuild its image or earn the trust of its\ncitizens is unclear. What is clear is that the journey for it in this regard\nwill be a long and arduous one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government and people of Nigeria are still counting their losses after the tragic halt to the #EndSARS protests by peaceful youths advocating for police reforms and improvements in the way Nigerian security officers treat citizens. The nationwide protests began on Thursday, October 8 and went on for almost two weeks, until Tuesday, October 20, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-endsars-after-the-violence-and-bloodshed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1773,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions\/1773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}