No one had envisaged that the#EndSARS protest by Nigerian
youths against police brutality which started peacefully about three
weeks ago would turn out a nightmare for the entire country with the
level of destruction that ended it after it had been hijacked by
hoodlums.
At the initial stage, some state governors not only
received the protesters and addressed them but even joined in the
protest march to the police headquarters. But miscreants and hoodlums
soon took advantage of the protest to molest and extort residents. The
turning point was the shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on
Tuesday 20th October 2020 by soldiers where a number of protesters
merely armed themselves with the national flags and singing the Nigerian
national anthem.
This resulted in national and international
outrage. Angry residents went on the streets to vent their anger by
attacking both public and private assets.
The police withdrew
from the streets to avoid bloody confrontation with the protesters while
the hoodlums armed with cutlasses, axes and other dangerous weapons
took over and had a field day breaking into shops, looting and burning.
The
discovery of a government warehouse in Lagos where COVID-19 palliatives
meant to be distributed to the people were kept and which were looted
by the residents appeared to have opened the eyes of the residents of
other states of the federation who went in search of such warehouses and
looted them.
The looting and destruction reached a ridiculous
level that even signboards of public institutions were uprooted and
agricultural tractors carried away. It was a reign of lawlessness and by
the time sanity returned, many lives had been lost, several police
stations and other public buildings burnt and hundreds of vehicles set
ablaze.
The victims have been counting their losses. They have been thrown into a state of hopelessness.
Their
businesses have been ruined. They are completely at a loss as to how
and where they would begin to put the broken pieces of their lives
together again.
The major casualty in the whole crisis is the
Nigeria Police Force. In spite of the directive by the Inspector-General
of Police to policemen nation wide to return to the streets and
maintain law and order, this has not been complied with.
Most of
the policemen kept away from the public claiming that they could no
longer walk freely again as their lives and those of their families were
being threatened by hoodlums who pretended to be #EndSARS protesters.
Few
of the policemen who summoned the courage to come out would rather hide
their uniforms in their bags until they got to their stations for fear
of mob attack.
In his account of the magnitude of the damage done to the police, the
Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu said 23 policemen were
killed during the crisis and several police stations burnt.
He
described as untrue report by Amnesty International that policemen shot
at peaceful protesters while the #EndSARS protest lasted. Rather, the
Police Chief affirmed that policemen acted professionally, by exercising
what he described as commendable restraints, with some of them paying
the supreme price for peace.
The IGP, in a statement
signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, Deputy Commissioner of
Police, Frank Mba, noted that “during the protests, officers of the
Force used legitimate means to ensure that the protests were carried out
in a peaceful manner and in most cases, physically protected and walked
side-by-side with the protesters.
Even when the protests turned
violent in some parts of the country, the officers still maintained
utmost restraint and did not use excessive force in managing the
situations.
“Available reports show that twenty-two (22)
police personnel were extra-judicially killed by some rampaging
protesters and scores injured during the protests. Many of the injured
personnel are in life threatening conditions at the hospitals.
“Two
hundred and five (205) Police stations and formations including other
critical private and public infrastructure were also damaged by a
section of the protesters. Despite these unprovoked attacks, our police
officers never resorted to use of unlawful force or shooting at the
protesters”.
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