The #ENDSARS Movement
As Nigerians protest to #EndPoliceBrutality, the government does not intend to give Nigerians what they deserve.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS) is a part of the Nigerian Police force under the unit of Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, founded in 1992 for the aim to tackle armed robbery and cybercriminal
But over the past years, the name SARS has become a source of much controversy for being accused of extortion, murder, torture, abuse, rape, harassment and framing. And these habits displayed by SARS began to be popular by a lot of Nigerian Youths who had a bad experience with the operatives.
SARS then became known for marking majorly youths based on their appearance. They mount illegal roadblocks, perform illegal ‘stop and search,’ break and enter, normally without search or arrest warrants.
SARS began to draw more media and public attention when a 15 years old child was killed by a SARS officer for been mistaken for a kidnapper.
Despite all the reports and charges against SARS the Nigerian Government never took effective action on the case but only promised to reform the Nigerian Police force. But the situation only elevates to worse as SARS operatives were not permitted to wear police uniforms, bear weapons in public or have walkie-talkies. They were given unmarked cars, often without license plates or private plate numbers, during service.
The #EndSARS protest started in December 2016, when Segun Awosanya started online advocacy to endSARS brutality and then got a good public respond by others posting their experience with SARS. The campaign has gained international media coverage.
On Saturday 3rd October 2020 an online video of a youth killed by SARS officer in Delta State and ran away in his white Lexus SUV was revealed.
This coated murder along with the other cases SARS has been accused of, caused Nigerians to start another #EndSARS protest, but this time an even bigger protest as Nigerians across the country and abroad began to join the movement which drew heavy international attention of the Government bodies and press media.
However, as the protest grew bigger and stronger the president does not intend to give Nigerians what they deserve, instead, he promised to reform the Nigerian Police force and asked Nigerians to bear with the reform programme.
But, Nigerians were not having it as they began to push the protest even further but it wasn’t easy as we lost some honourable citizens got shot by police officers during the protest but the shootings only aggravated the protest even more.
The Inspector-General of Police on 11 October 2020 came out to announce that the SARS will be disbanded and dissolved to various offices after been pressured but that’s
But that’s not what Nigerians really deserve. Deploying the officers into various other offices won’t really make a difference as the same disband SARS officers might continue their misdeeds in their new offices.
The fight is not over until the entire police force has been reformed and re-educated on rule of law and the human fundamental rights of the citizens.
This article is not just an informative article about the meaning of the #EndSARS movement but to also to remind anyone reading this that Nigerians or Americans are the only ones suffering from police brutality just because they protest it, they are many other countries facing same issues.
We must always stand for our rights and make our leaders give us what we truly deserve as citizens of our Great Nation respectively. But remember we have to fight for what we deserve if we really a better world for us and the next generation.
