Nigerians mark one year anniversary of anti-police brutality protests

Record ID: 1642436

  • Title: Nigerians mark one year anniversary of anti-police brutality protests
  • Date: 20th October 2021
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (FILE - 2020) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS BLOCKING THE AIRPORT TOLL GATE PROTESTERS CHANTING AROUND SECURITY VEHICLE WITH GUNNER LOOKING OUT WOMAN WITH MEGAPHONE CHANTING “END SARS” ABUJA, NIGERIA (FILE - 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF A POLICE WATER CANNON TRUCK SPRAYING PROTESTERS LAGOS, NIGERIA (FILE - 2020) (REUTERS) ADMIRALTY TOLL GATE IN LEKKI AT AFTERMATH OF
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2021 11:00
  • Keywords: Anniversary End SARS Lekki shooting Police brutality Protests opression
  • Location: LAGOS AND ABUJA, NIGERIA
  • City: LAGOS AND ABUJA, NIGERIA
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Africa,Crime/Law/Justice
  • Reuters ID: LVA002EZYSGG7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Nigerians came out on foot and in convoys on Wednesday (October 20) to mark the one year anniversary of the "EndSARS" protests against police brutality which ended in bloodshed and triggered the worst street unrest Nigeria had seen since 1999.
    Protesters marched through the Lekki Toll Gate, a stretch of tarmac in front of toll booths on a highway on the outskirts of Lagos, where last year soldiers and police opened fire on peaceful protests, though both denied firing live rounds.
    Rights group Amnesty International said 12 protesters were killed in two districts that night.
    The government has never acknowledged the extent of the violence.
    But it responded with promises to transform policing, including meeting the demonstrators' demand to shut down the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit activists blamed for a campaign of extortion, violence, kidnapping and intimidation.
    One year on, activists say those government promises have proven hollow.
    The government has largely reconstituted under another name the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit that Nigerians accused of a range of atrocities and established judicial panels to investigate police brutality and compensate victims.
    (Production: Seun Sanni, Nneka Chile)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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