Police Brutality and EndSARS in Nigeria

What started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) snowballed into mass demonstrations across major Nigerian cities between October 8 and October 22, 2020. Among Nigerians, most public institutions are regarded as centers of corruption. The Nigeria Police, for example, is regarded as a postal child for extortions and arbitrary arrest, detention without trial, bribery and corruption, etc. SARS, a unit of the police force, was established in 1992 to combat growing cases of (armed) robbery and motor vehicle theft, kidnapping and cattle rustling, illegal firearms possession and sundry activities. SARS, many Nigerians believe, is synonymous with stop and search, arbitrary arrest without warrant and detention without trial, torture and framing, blackmail and kidnapping, illegal organ trade and armed robbery, home invasions and rape of men and women, child arrests and invasion of privacy, extra-judicial killing and forced disappearances, etc. These activities were the exact opposite of what SARS was established to confront. SARS officers were alleged to have targeted young Nigerians, especially males dressed flamboyantly or who sported tattoos or wore fashionable hairstyles, etc.

Besides being mass protests, EndSARS protests also included online outrage on different social media platforms. As Kazeem Yomi noted in Quartz Africa, the EndSARS hashtag garnered a record 28 million tweets as of October 13, 2020.

At the beginning, EndSARS protesters, including celebrities Falz, Runtown, Don Jazzy, Olu Jacobs, Eedris Abdulkareem and several comedians and other media personalities, barricaded the entrance to the Lagos State Governor’s House on Thursday October 8, 2020 where some of the protesters slept till Friday October 9, 2020. The Deputy Governor addressed the protesters that Friday, urging them to disperse and assuring them that their demand for disbanding SARS would be presented to the Federal Government. Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly also met that day to deliberate on the demands of the EndSARS protesters. At the end of their deliberation, the Assembly submitted a seven-point resolution, which reads in part: that “Nigeria’s Senate and House of Assembly should probe FSARS, the Police Commissioner should protect protesters, molestation of youths should be stopped, institution of public inquiry on the extrajudicial killings by Senate President and the House of Representatives Speaker, proscription of SARS and its replacement by a new unit with a clear code of conduct, and sanction of illegalities”.

Across different cities in Delta, Anambra, Abia, Osun, Rivers, Ogun, Enugu, Ebonyi, Edo, and Plateau States, EndSARS protesters took to the streets with placards, banners, etc., burning tires and blocking roads in expressing their demands. In solidarity, peaceful protests were also held in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States of America.

In a release, the EndSARS protesters demanded the immediate release of all protesters arrested during the protests as well as justice and compensation for all who died as a result of police brutality in Nigeria; the establishment of an independent body within 10 days to investigate and prosecute all reports of police misconduct; the psychological evaluation and retraining of SARS operatives before they are deployed to any other police unit; and adequate increase in the salaries for officers of the Nigeria police. The communique, which was released on Sunday October 11, 2020, was signed by ‘A Nigerian Youth’ for and on behalf of the protesters.

In Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, youths gathered at the headquarters of Nigeria Police Force, demanding that Mr. Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police, to address them. In Ogbomoso, Oyo State, EndSARS protesters invaded and destroyed the palace of the Soun of Ogbomoso. In the ensuing melee, police allegedly injured seven people and one Jimoh Isiaka, a bystander, was killed by a stray bullet. In Osogbo, Osun State as well as in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, the governors were attacked. Osun State governor escaped death only by the whiskers, as the car he was in was badly damaged. In Benin City, Edo State, EndSARS protesters breached two prisons and released all the prisoners.

The case of Lagos State received the most attention, as EndSARS protesters did not only take residence in front of the state governor’s house, but also did in different parts of the city, most notably the Lekki Toll Gate. The list of public and private property destroyed in Lagos include the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government secretariat; Palace of the Oba of Lagos; Lagos High Court, Igbosere; Oyingbo BRT terminus; Ojodu Berger BRT terminus; Vehicle Inspection Office, Ojodu Berger; Lagos State Public Works Corporation, Ojodu Berger; Lagos City Hall and Circle Mall, Lekki; numerous luxury shops in Surulere, The Nation Newspaper, TVC and Shoprite at Lekki.

As Mr. Gbenga Omotosho, the Commissioner for Information, Lagos State, noted, 57 BRT vehicles costing about 3.9 billion Naira were destroyed during the EndSARS protests. As Lagos State Police Commissioner also noted, a total of 25 police stations were burnt at Orile, Amukoko, Layeni, Ilasamaja, Ikotun, Ajah, Igando, Elemoro, Makinde, Onipanu, Ebute Ero, Pen-Cinema, Isokoko, Alade, Cele, Igbo Elerin, Shibiri, Gbagada, Onilekere, Makoko, Daleko, Asahun, Makinyo, Amuwo-Odofin, Anti-Kidnapping, Surulere. Other police stations that were vandalized but not burnt were Ojo, Ojodu, Mowo, PPL and Morogbo.

An estimated 1 trillion Naira worth of property were lost to the EndSARS protests in Lagos State alone. Following increasing wave of violence and vandalism, destruction of private and public buildings and killings of police officers, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, declared a 24-hour curfew on October 20, 2020.

Also, on October 20, officials of the Lekki Concession Company, the management of the Lekki Toll Gate, were seen removing Number Plate Scanners from the toll gates, which was erroneously reported on social media as CCTV cameras. Streetlights, which had stayed on since the beginning of the protests, were also turned off and, few hours after these, members of the Nigerian Army arrived, demanding that the protesters comply with the curfew. Following their alleged refusal, these soldiers were alleged to have opened fire to disperse the protesters.

Social media platforms were replete with videos and pictures of protesters who were allegedly killed and wounded at Lekki Toll Gate. Immediate reports included the killing of Ms. Eniola Badmus, a Nollywwod actress who, a few days later, took to social media to debunk the video of her supposed ‘death’ and assert that she was not at Lekki Toll Gate on that day. Several other people that were allegedly killed at Lekki Toll Gate turned up a day or two after the event to deny claims of their death. A number of other videos and photos purportedly from the ‘massacre’ turned out to be from movies. See links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llY8Q8nHwR0

https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/celebrities/eniola-badmus-says-reports-of-her-being-shot-at-lekki-tollgate-are-false/yebpl6b

https://factcheck.afp.com/image-shows-actor-movie-set-not-man-shot-during-nigeria-protests

https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/celebrities/eniola-badmus-says-reports-of-her-being-shot-at-lekki-tollgate-are-false/yebpl6b

https://factcheck.afp.com/image-shows-actor-movie-set-not-man-shot-during-nigeria-protests

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/11/lekki-shootings-cctv-stopped-recording-after-8p-m-lcc-boss/

https://businessday.ng/endsars-protest-update/article/cctv-cameras-at-lekki-toll-gate-still-intact-says-sanwo-olu/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54506567

Right to Peaceful Assembly and Lekki Toll Gate Shooting: Is Government Right?

Article 21 of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), to which 172 nations, including Nigeria, are signatories recognized peaceful protest as a matter of human rights and notes as follows: “The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

In the remaining sections of this essay, I will focus on the application of Article 21 of the UNHRC to the EndSARS protests in Nigeria. Let me note that I am not a lawyer and my interpretation of Article 21 of the UNHRC should not be taken as the legal position that a court would apply, rather, it is rather as I understood the said article. I make bold to state that it is the fundamental right of every Nigerian to hold protests anywhere in Nigeria and, any human being, irrespective of nationality and status, reserves the rights to participate in such a protest or protests.

Notwithstanding the above, I must call attention to the fact that Article 21 of the UNHRC has attracted criticisms. The United States of America, the foremost bastion of democracy and human rights, raised issues with Article 21 of the UNHRC on many grounds, including (a) Relevance of Regional Jurisprudence and Guidance, maintaining among other things that the document of which Article 21 is a part, is a non-binding document and (b) Scope of Peaceful Assembly Protection, noting among other things, the problem with “peaceful assembly” and preferring the word “right of assembly” or “freedom of assembly” and asserting that “the United States agrees that “the right of peaceful assembly is not absolute”. Other areas of contention raised by the USA include (c) “Peaceful Assembly”; (d) “Publicly Accessible Space”; (d) “Peaceful or Violent Assemblies”; (e) “Time, Place, and Manner”; (f) “Disruptions”; (g) “Permitting vs. Prior Notification”, etc. etc.

As a layman, I am of the view that there is a thin line separating peaceful protest from violent protest. In other words, at what point does the descriptor – ‘peaceful’ become inapplicable to protest and the state, for national security purposes, can intervene in a peaceful protest to protect the state? Was the EndSARS protest peaceful protest or violent protest? At what point in the EndSARS protest can government intervene to restore peace?

On peaceful or violent protests, it is important to determine whether the 2 stage thresholds or what the UN called a “two-stage process” is respected or not. A 2-Stage Process determines whether an individual is engaging in a peaceful protest as protected by Article 21 of the UNHCR, which is a human right or is engaging in illegality shrouded in a ‘peaceful’ protest cloak. In consideration of the above, the UN recognizes and affirms that freedom of peaceful protest generally, belongs to individuals, NOT to groups (emphasis mine). As Article 21 of the UNHRC argues, if (and when) some members of a peaceful assembly resort to violent conducts during a peaceful protest, other participants in the peaceful protests cannot be liable unless they also engage in violent conducts during the protest. So, even, when acting as part of a group, an individual not only retains his/her rights to peaceful assembly but also takes responsibility for his/her action(s) and inaction(s).

Besides the rights and responsibility of individuals, Article 21 of the UNHRC also allows law enforcement to LAWFULLY disperse a LAWFUL assembly WHEN that ASSEMBLY BECOMES VIOLENT. The keys to understanding what Article 21 of the UNHRC says here are (a) the requirements for an assembly to be peaceful or otherwise and (b) who makes that determination of when an assembly, based on (a) above, become a violent assembly. As Article 21 of the UNHRC notes, the onus is on government to determine when an assembly is peaceful or violent. In addition, Article 21 of the UNHRC also allows government to intervene once it deems an assembly “violent”. So, by Article 21 of the UNHCR, a government can impose restrictions, which could include the use of force, when a peaceful protest becomes violent.

To this end, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other security apparatus of government in Lagos and other states of the Nigerian federation, was right under the Article 21 of the UNHRC in determining that:

• the EndSARS protest was no longer a peaceful protest when the protesters began to burn tires on public roads and invading private spaces, ripping apart the Lekki Toll Gate and tearing down sign-posts, burning down public property including BRT busses, local government secretariats, police stations, etc. and preventing utility vehicles, including ambulances, fire service, hospital workers, etc. from providing emergency services to victims, breaching prisons and releasing inmates, killing police officers and spilling their guts on the streets;

• the need to impose a curfew to disperse EndSARS protesters has arisen;

• calling on members of the Armed Forces to disperse EndSARS protesters across Nigerian cities;

In addition to the above, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other security apparatus of government in Lagos and other states of the Nigerian federation, was right under the Article 21 of the UNHRC in mandating:

• lawful arrest and/or detention of individuals who engaged in a violent conduct during the EndSARS protests;

• protesters who were not engaging in violent protests to continue with their protests or to discontinue;

• allowing for mass arrests of EndSARS protests’ organizers;

• dispersing the EndSARS assembly, when it was deemed necessary.

Since the right to peaceful protest under Article 21 of the UNHRC applies only to individuals and not to group, EndSARS is therefore an illegal group and its activities, as a group, falls outside the purview of the law. In the same way, an individual or individuals whose conduct is violent or who “engages in criminal use of force against another person or property” in the protest organized by EndSARS organizers acts outside the law, and since EndSARS is not a group recognized under any law, individuals have rights and are also responsible for their actions whether as individuals or as members of the unlawful group, EndSARS.

Article 21 of the UNHRC also mandates a narrow definition of peaceful assembly where an individual may not have conducted himself or herself violently but is involved in a conspiracy to commit violence or where the individual’s violence is imminent. In this case, imminent violence, as noted in Article 21 of the UNHCR, include genuine and intentional violence or threats of violence, genuine and intentional intimidation or threats of intimidation to an individual, agency, etc. Where any or a combination of these occurs, a government’s prohibition in whatever form is legitimate to protect, preserve, and sustain public order and prevent harm to other individuals, agencies, the state, etc.

Article 21 of the UNHRC and other laws in different nations also establish relationship between peaceful assemblies and civil disobedience. For instance, individuals engaging in a peaceful protest are not allowed to engage in unlawful activity in the course of, as part of, or expression of, etc. a peaceful assembly. In this wise, Article 21 of the UNHRC upholds that where an individual engages in a criminal behavior, he or she is liable and law enforcement can arrest or detain such individual for breaking the law, including laws relating to trespass, so long as the law itself is “necessary” and in “the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others”.

Based on the above, we can submit that the Federal Government of Nigeria is justified in bringing the Army or Police to Lekki Toll Gate and other locations where EndSARS protests occurred across Nigeria. Why? Any protest that involves burning of public and private property, vandalism, killing, etc. fail the threshold of what is called “peaceful protest”.

Lekki Toll Gate Shooting: Was this a Massacre?

However, in a recently released video, the CNN, an American news network, reviewed a video of the shooting, which revealed a number of key things, two of which are that the ENDSARS organizers engaged in violent protests and, contrary to the claims of the Nigeria Army’s, live rounds were shot at protesters. See CNN link below and pay special attention to the end of the video, which showed a scene of burning, looting, vandalization, etc.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/11/17/lekki-toll-gate-shooting-army-police-lon-orig-mkd.cnn/video/playlists/mobile-digital-features/

A massacre, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is an “act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty”. Dictionary.com does a better job of defining a massacre – “the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder”. In whatever way it is defined, killing peaceful protesters is wrong. It is a crime, and people are justified to raise concern over it.

In a recent letter sent to the Biden-Harris in-coming US government by a number of African Studies scholars in the United States, it was alleged that members of “the Nigerian army shot and killed at least 12 unarmed protesters singing the national anthem and holding the Nigerian flag” at the Lekki Toll Gate while “over 120,000 people worldwide witnessed this brutality on social media live streams”. The description, which reads like an eye-witness account, aims at conveying the seriousness of the issue. In the CNN video referenced above, it was claimed that about 100 people were killed at Lekki Toll Gate on the night of October 20, 2020. The event, which has since been christened “Lekki Toll Gate Massacre” or “Black Tuesday”, calls to mind two other cases – Christchurch, New Zealand, mass shootings where Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old man from Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, live-streamed his terrorist attack on two mosques during Friday Prayer on 15 March 2019 and the shooting to death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was killed by Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael – while William Bryan, a 50-year-old White man, filmed the killing. While in the first case, the terrorist filmed the killing in real time, in the second, the film was published some few days later.

In both Christchurch and Georgia, the events were recorded on video and while Brenton Harrison Tarrant live-streamed his dastardly acts, William Bryan recorded the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. In both cases, bodies of the dead and the wounded were available for all to see. Unfortunately, in the so-called Lekki Toll Gate Massacre, claims were made but no evidence was provided.

Curiously, if the ‘killing’ was said to have been live-streamed and watched by a total of 120,000 people while the killing was being carried out, some people, in much the same way as William Bryan in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in the United States, must have recorded the killing and livestreamed it in real-time. Who are these people? Where are the videos? Where are the dead? Who are their parents and relatives? Where are their bodies? Has anyone come forward to lay claim to missing a family member?

It is easy to claim that soldiers who did the supposed killing took the bodies away. However, it is strange that the livestreaming that captured the first act, failed to capture the second and subsequent other acts.

As noted earlier, several of the people that were announced to have been killed at Lekki Toll Gate turned up a day or two after the event, denying not only their death, but also claiming not to be anywhere near Lagos on the said day. Similarly, many of the videos and photos purportedly from Lekki Toll Gate were either from movies or events outside of Nigeria.

Who doctored these videos and photos? Why would anyone doctor photos and videos that are totally unrelated to EndSARS and present them as products of the Nigerian Army’s actions against the EndSARS protesters? What are the impacts of these doctored ‘evidence’ on the now famous sobriquet: “Lekki Toll Gate Massacre” or “Lekki Toll Gate Shooting”? What does this say about the EndSARS protests and the organizers? Should these deliberate social-media attempts at heating up the Nigerian polity obligate the Nigerian government and the international community to investigate and act or not?

While finding answers to the above is as important as finding solutions to police brutality in Nigeria, it must be noted that the Nigerian Army were alleged to have killed 12 or 50 or 65 or 100 people that night at Lekki Toll Gate. It must be noted that both the Police and Army denied killing anyone. While the Army admitted having opened fired on protesters, it however noted that blank-bullets were shot into the sky, and not on the protesters. In order words, the army shot into the sky to disperse the protesters to force them to comply with the state-imposed curfew. The claims of the Army shooting blank-bullets and not killing any protesters have been contested by many Nigerians and the CNN.

Lack of power (electricity) is a perennial problem in Nigeria. So, that power was turned off at Lekki Toll Gate prior to the so-called massacre proves nothing. As reported in another post, CCTV cameras were said to have been removed before the so-called massacre. It turned out that what was removed were Number Plate Scanners and not CCTV cameras. What about the CCTV footage of the events that was shown at the on-going panel of inquiry? Many have queried why electricity was turned off before the arrival of the army? Could this be to disperse the protesters?

For a fact, the Nigerian government, like any other government across the world, “is obligated to uphold the right to non-violent protest” and to bring violent protestors to justice. Just as government must “ensure the safety of protestors in accordance with Chapter IV, Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, so also is government obligated to protect police officers, police stations, public properties, etc. from any harm by protesters, whether violent protesters and non-violent ones. Just as “Article 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights … guarantees the right to peacefully assemble”, “Article 5 prohibits torture and cruel and degrading treatment of persons”, including police officers.

As Yoruba’s would say it: “A ki i fi oburewa mu ni l’aje” – ugliness does not connote witchcraft. Just as ugliness cannot prove witchcraft and sorcery, the presence of the Army and the claim and counterclaim about shooting blank bullets to or above the protesters cannot prove massacre, only bodies can. CNN claimed to have interviewed about 100 people who lost their loved ones at Lekki Toll Gate; who were these people and why were they silent and unwilling to come forward? Could CNN have reviewed a fake video, after all the news media failed to share critical details like sources, author, etc. with the readers? Given the number of fake videos and photos that we have seen so far, I think this is a legitimate question.

By Way of Conclusion

Many Nigerians refused to accept that a sinister campaign of calumny was launched on Nigeria over the EndSARS protests, as the various videos and photos, posts and comments, made on social media showed. As mentioned above, people that were claimed to have been killed later appeared on social media and in video-messages to deny and debunk claims made in fake social media videos and photos.

With fake videos and photos, posts and comments, there is overwhelming evidence pointing to culpability of the organizers of EndSARS protests; questions that remain unanswered include: who were the people behind those fake videos and photos, incendiary social media postings and comments? What were their objectives or motives for circulating fake videos and photos? Why did the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu initially deny inviting the Army to disperse the EndSARS protesters? Why did the Army continue to deny using live bullets on EndSARS protesters despite video evidence, especially the one made available by CNN? Until we find answers to these existential questions, the EndSARS protest will continue to remain a big failure.

Reading social media posts and comments on the on-going fact-finding sitting in Lagos, I cannot but conclude that a great number of Nigerians do not know what a ‘peaceful protest’ is. I hope the use of Article 21 of the UNHRC in explaining the legal meaning of peaceful protest will educate these Nigerians on what a peaceful protest means.