Hi Beanies.
I know this isn’t the platform for this, but I think this is the most I can do. I don’t know if anyone has seen the #EndSARS recently trending on twitter. SARS is ‘Special Anti-robbery squad’ that was formed for the purpose of fighting and eradicating crimes like armed-robbery, kidnapping, e.t.c in Nigeria. But for years, they’ve been the doing the opposite of their job. They’ve spent years harassing, assaulting, and even murdering Nigerian youths. Their M.O is stopping any young person who looks otherwise ‘clean’ meaning, they’re decked in expensive shoes, wristwatches, clothes or carrying an expensive phone and driving an otherwise nice car. They stop them and demand to search their cars, phones, and their laptops. If you try to exercise your constitutional rights, you’re met with animosity and aggression. They ask questions like ‘how old are you?’ ‘how are you young and can afford this?’ ‘are you a fraudster?’ even after you’ve shown them your identity card, explained your job or tried to be compliant to their tyranny. Sometimes, you’re held at gunpoint. Regardless of whatever they find or don’t find to attempt to incriminate you, it always ends in one way – them demanding a fee for your freedom. They threaten to jail or shoot you if you don’t bribe them.
Sometimes, they’re not in uniform and they don’t even identify themselves. They could just stop your car and pounce and have everyone at gunpoint and force you to the next ATM for the purpose of extorting you. And that’s you being lucky. The unlucky people get hauled into unmarked vehicles after being heavily assaulted (sexually or physically) and be driven away till they’re either abandoned or dropped in a prison. There are cases of people who have gone missing and were later found in prisons because they were picked up by SARS, framed for a crime they didn’t commit and given no opportunity to contact their loved ones for bail.
The real unlucky ones get killed. There has been NUMEROUS cases. Some young people were gunned down. Some were engulfed in a car chase that eventually led to a car crash. Some were assaulted to death. They’re a menace! And a lot of Nigerians have had experiences of being frisked by these tyrants. My brother has on many occasions but he’s been really lucky to have had either an outranking police officer on his side, or something to distract them. I, personally, know people who have lost their siblings to them.
So why are these authorized tyrants running amok? Nigerians have been protesting for years after every killing that makes it to the news. Early this year, there was a public outrage for a young 16-year old girl that was murdered by a trigger-happy officer. But we got angry, trended #ENDSARS and then the government said they’ll reform it but nothing changes. We’ve been dancing to the same tunes for at least 3 years now. Why is this different? Because, for the first time since I can remember, young Nigerians are fed up and not just complaining on twitter but have gone to the streets to protest. For the first time in a long time, there’s a momentum and they’re not going to back down. Nigerian youths have been on streets protesting for three days straight. It started in Lagos state and has sparked other protests all through out the country. Nigerians outside the country are starting to rally to go protest in front the embassies in their respective countries. But the government has been fighting back. They tried to silence the media, so we took to twitter to trend it, hoping international press picks it up. The otherwise peaceful protest in some cities have been met with teargas, police attacks and intimidation. Still, the Nigerian youths won’t relent because they have started a revolution and they’re desperate to have something to come out of it. If nothing changes, SARS is going to continue to prowl but with more confidence knowing they have the government backing them.
So how can you help? You can read more about SARS on the internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_SARS, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/9/endsars-nigerians-protest-over-police-brutality,
Mostly, you can help by retweeting #EndSARS to help raise awareness and keep it trending. I know this isn’t the platform and I apologize because a lot of people come here to escape the outside world but I’m just trying to raise awareness.
I’m not on Twitter but I dropped by to say that I definitely know the feeling one can have when you know there are atrocities happening in your country and the government does nothing about it. Mostly one’s first guess is that they are involved too and that leads to even more helplessness. The fear in the general public is too much and I can guess what Nigerians are going through but I’m still very proud of them for speaking up (protests haven’t brought any big change in my part of the world sadly) and hopefully things will go right. One can hope.
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IamPilgrim
October 10, 2020 at 2:44 AM
Hi Beanies.
I know this isn’t the platform for this, but I think this is the most I can do. I don’t know if anyone has seen the #EndSARS recently trending on twitter. SARS is ‘Special Anti-robbery squad’ that was formed for the purpose of fighting and eradicating crimes like armed-robbery, kidnapping, e.t.c in Nigeria. But for years, they’ve been the doing the opposite of their job. They’ve spent years harassing, assaulting, and even murdering Nigerian youths. Their M.O is stopping any young person who looks otherwise ‘clean’ meaning, they’re decked in expensive shoes, wristwatches, clothes or carrying an expensive phone and driving an otherwise nice car. They stop them and demand to search their cars, phones, and their laptops. If you try to exercise your constitutional rights, you’re met with animosity and aggression. They ask questions like ‘how old are you?’ ‘how are you young and can afford this?’ ‘are you a fraudster?’ even after you’ve shown them your identity card, explained your job or tried to be compliant to their tyranny. Sometimes, you’re held at gunpoint. Regardless of whatever they find or don’t find to attempt to incriminate you, it always ends in one way – them demanding a fee for your freedom. They threaten to jail or shoot you if you don’t bribe them.
Sometimes, they’re not in uniform and they don’t even identify themselves. They could just stop your car and pounce and have everyone at gunpoint and force you to the next ATM for the purpose of extorting you. And that’s you being lucky. The unlucky people get hauled into unmarked vehicles after being heavily assaulted (sexually or physically) and be driven away till they’re either abandoned or dropped in a prison. There are cases of people who have gone missing and were later found in prisons because they were picked up by SARS, framed for a crime they didn’t commit and given no opportunity to contact their loved ones for bail.
IamPilgrim
October 10, 2020 at 2:44 AM
The real unlucky ones get killed. There has been NUMEROUS cases. Some young people were gunned down. Some were engulfed in a car chase that eventually led to a car crash. Some were assaulted to death. They’re a menace! And a lot of Nigerians have had experiences of being frisked by these tyrants. My brother has on many occasions but he’s been really lucky to have had either an outranking police officer on his side, or something to distract them. I, personally, know people who have lost their siblings to them.
So why are these authorized tyrants running amok? Nigerians have been protesting for years after every killing that makes it to the news. Early this year, there was a public outrage for a young 16-year old girl that was murdered by a trigger-happy officer. But we got angry, trended #ENDSARS and then the government said they’ll reform it but nothing changes. We’ve been dancing to the same tunes for at least 3 years now. Why is this different? Because, for the first time since I can remember, young Nigerians are fed up and not just complaining on twitter but have gone to the streets to protest. For the first time in a long time, there’s a momentum and they’re not going to back down. Nigerian youths have been on streets protesting for three days straight. It started in Lagos state and has sparked other protests all through out the country. Nigerians outside the country are starting to rally to go protest in front the embassies in their respective countries. But the government has been fighting back. They tried to silence the media, so we took to twitter to trend it, hoping international press picks it up. The otherwise peaceful protest in some cities have been met with teargas, police attacks and intimidation. Still, the Nigerian youths won’t relent because they have started a revolution and they’re desperate to have something to come out of it. If nothing changes, SARS is going to continue to prowl but with more confidence knowing they have the government backing them.
So how can you help? You can read more about SARS on the internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_SARS, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/9/endsars-nigerians-protest-over-police-brutality,
Mostly, you can help by retweeting #EndSARS to help raise awareness and keep it trending. I know this isn’t the platform and I apologize because a lot of people come here to escape the outside world but I’m just trying to raise awareness.
wapz
October 10, 2020 at 8:33 AM
I’m not on Twitter but I dropped by to say that I definitely know the feeling one can have when you know there are atrocities happening in your country and the government does nothing about it. Mostly one’s first guess is that they are involved too and that leads to even more helplessness. The fear in the general public is too much and I can guess what Nigerians are going through but I’m still very proud of them for speaking up (protests haven’t brought any big change in my part of the world sadly) and hopefully things will go right. One can hope.