Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Nigeria SARS Protests: Amnesty Warns of “Escalating Attacks” 
BBC staff
21 Oct 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Nigeria SARS Protests: Amnesty Warns of “Escalating Attacks” 
Nigeria SARS Protests: Amnesty Warns of “Escalating Attacks” 

Protests mount against Africa’s most populous nation’s most feared police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

“Protesters use the hashtags #EndSars, #EndBadGovernance, #BetterNigeria and #FixNigeriaNow.

The rights group Amnesty International has raised concern about "escalating violence" in Nigeria against the #EndSars protest movement.  Armed thugs had attacked protesters at the headquarters of the central bank in the capital, Abuja, it said. 

For their part, police accused people "posing" as protesters of looting weapons, and torching police buildings in southern Edo state. Prisoners were also reported to have escaped from a jail in the state.

The protests started earlier this month to demand an end to police brutality, with mainly young people using the social media hashtag #EndSars to rally people to demand the closure of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars).

The protests have also been backed by global celebrities such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, US rapper Kanye West, footballers Mesut Ozil and Marcus Rashford as well as Nigerian superstars Davido and Wizkid.

The government agreed to disband the unit, but protests have since snowballed into calls for wider reforms with protesters now also using the hashtags #EndBadGovernance, #BetterNigeria and #FixNigeriaNow to build support on social media.

There was an increased military presence in Abuja on Monday -- a day after Defense Minister Bashir Magashi warned protesters against "breaching national security, the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo reported from the city. 

Torture allegations

In Lagos, the country's commercial hub, protesters blocked access to the main international airport by barricading the road.

Amnesty said police brutality has continued, with a 17-year-old teenager, named only as Saifullah, dying in police custody in northern Kano state on Monday. She had allegedly been tortured to death, prompting protests in Kano's Kofar Mata area, Amnesty added. Police have not yet commented on the allegation.

In other developments, Amnesty said police fired tear gas at peaceful protesters in Abuja, while armed thugs had early on Monday morning attacked activists who had been occupying the central bank's headquarters in the city.  Dozens of protesters were severely injured, the rights group said. 

It was the latest in a series of "escalating violence and coordinated attacks" against #EndSars protesters, Amnesty added. The attacks have also led to casualties in recent days in the cities of Benin in the south, and Oshogbo in the middle-belt, it said.

"We again call on law enforcement agencies to investigate these incidents and protect the protesters from further attack by hoodlums," Amnesty added.

“The attacks have also led to casualties in the cities of Benin and Oshogbo.”

Meanwhile, the Edo state government has declared an indefinite curfew because of "incidents of vandalism and attacks carried out by hoodlums in the guise of #EndSars protesters." Earlier, prisoners broke out of a jail in the state. Local media reported that more than 200 prisoners had escaped, but there has been no independent confirmation of this.

In videos posted on social media, some men could be seen scaling a high barbed-wire fence said to be the prison walls. Police said two police stations and a police post were attacked in the state by "persons posing as #EndSars protesters."

"The extent of damage cannot be ascertained at the moment but report indicates that the protesters carted away arms and ammunition from the armory and freed the suspects in custody before setting some of the facilities ablaze," it said. 

Some Twitter users responded to the claim with scepticism. 

"Nigerian police that are happy to shoot at peaceful protesters suddenly froze when prisoners are escaping??" one tweeter commented.

This article previously appeared in BBC.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com 

Police Repression

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Fragmentation, Force, and Fascism: The Architecture of the Repressive National Security State
21 January 2026
The state is not drifting toward repression; it is building it with serious intent.
Carrie Zaremba
U.S. Universities Spent the Summer Strategizing to Suppress Student Activism. Here is their Plan.
11 September 2024
Schools across the U.S.
Jacqueline Luqman
Defeat The Fascist War On African People In The US And Abroad!
19 June 2024
The struggle to defeat the war on African people can be understood through an analysis of the ongoing relationship between African people and t
Muslim student stands against NYPD
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Eric Adams and the NYPD Repress Dissent
08 May 2024
New York City Mayor Eric Adams may well be the very worst of the Black misleadership class.
Saying Her Name
Heather Ann Thompson
Saying Her Name
19 May 2021
Remains that were found to be those of a Black MOVE teen-ager who was killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 were treated as an anthropological spec
The Police “Just Launched a War”
J. Lester Feder
The Police “Just Launched a War”
19 May 2021
Do some, most or all US police departments have a pattern and practice of racial bias that makes them fundamentally unable to regulate themselves?
Police and the License to Kill
Matthew D. Lassiter
Police and the License to Kill
12 May 2021
Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound
What Police Impunity Looks Like
Eric Umansky
What Police Impunity Looks Like
21 April 2021
They came into his own home and took his life for no reason.
Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
15 April 2021
The Black-murder-by-cop next door to Minneapolis shows the world the dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonia
More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
Anoa Changa
More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
17 March 2021
Violence from people of color and other marginalized groups – or even simply fear of such violence -- is dealt with immediately and with the harshe

More Stories


  • Last Moyo’s Book, “The Decolonial Turn in Media Studies in Africa and the Global South”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    Last Moyo’s Book, “The Decolonial Turn in Media Studies in Africa and the Global South”
    27 Jul 2022
    This week’s featured author is Last Moyo. Moyo lectures in the Department of Communications and Multimedia Design at the American University, Nigeria. His book is The Decolonial Turn in Media Studies…
  • BAR Book Forum: Karen Jaime’s Book, “The Queer Nuyorican”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Karen Jaime’s Book, “The Queer Nuyorican”
    27 Jul 2022
    This week’s featured author is Karen Jaime. Jaime is Assistant Professor of Performing and Media Arts and Latina/o Studies at Cornell University. Jaime’s book is The Queer Nuyorican: Racialized…
  • Ghana’s Unions and Left Reject Bailout Talks with the IMF as Economic Crisis Spirals
    Tanupriya Singh
    Ghana’s Unions and Left Reject Bailout Talks with the IMF as Economic Crisis Spirals
    27 Jul 2022
    Ghana has initiated talks with the International Monetary Fund to seek a potential bailout amid a major economic crisis. This has been rejected by the Socialist Movement of Ghana and trade unions who…
  • Police Departments Spend Vast Sums of Money Creating “Copaganda”
    Alec Karakatsanis
    Police Departments Spend Vast Sums of Money Creating “Copaganda”
    27 Jul 2022
    US police departments spend tens of millions of dollars every year to manipulate the news, flooding the discourse with “copaganda.” These aggressive tactics give the public a distorted view of what…
  • South Africa’s Energy Crisis Escalates
    Brian Kamanzi
    South Africa’s Energy Crisis Escalates
    27 Jul 2022
    Behind rolling power cuts loom deep-seated socioeconomic issues worsened by the rich countries of the world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us