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By Nathan Adams, Sam Player 
7h ago
Cape Town – Nigerian expats living in Cape Town plan to take to the streets once again this week in protest against the heavy-handed special police force known as the Nigerian Special Anti-Theft Squad (SARS).
The Nigerian government has pledged to dissolve the police unit, after a special presidential directive was issued. This has not tempered the emotions of Nigerians at home or abroad, traumatized by years of incessant violence, brutality and extortion at the hands of the SARS police.
The Nigerian Community of the Western Cape (NCWC), a non-profit organization representing Nigerian residents in the province, confirmed that they would organize a march to Parliament tomorrow at 11am. This follows the initial protest to Parliament that took place last Wednesday.
“Monday’s protest is where we will deliver our memorandum,” said NCWC Public Relations Officer Ebiere Joseph-Akwunwa.
“The reason is that in the protest we did on Wednesday, we did not hand over the document because so many things had happened to young people, after hearing that their colleagues were being shot in Nigeria with the police shooting at them.”
One of the protesters, who spoke on condition of anonymity, detailed how he was extorted by SARS agents in 2006. He said he was a trainee working for a company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and had just been accepted. for an academic master’s degree. program in London when an encounter with SARS changed his life for the worse.
Now living in Parklands, the Nigerian man fought back tears as he described being randomly detained at Magogo Estate, Nigeria, and being put on a bus with other strangers and taken away by SARS agents.
“On the way they terrorized us on that bus and said we were scammers and armed robbers … I sat there and kept quiet,” he said. “They took us to a small hut at the back of a police station … I had my bank book with me in which my last withdrawal and bank balance was written, I had 650,000 Naira (approximately R27000) there,” he said. additional. The man pleaded with SARS officers not to empty his bank account because the money was from his father’s pension, which was intended to pay for his studies in London.
“They beat me, the group of men beat me, kicked me and then one of them took out his gun and pointed it at my head.”
He said he knew his life was in danger, so he agreed to take them to his bank and was able to withdraw 150,000 Naira, after which they let him go. He said that this incident was “80% of the reason why I left Nigeria and came to South Africa.”
“I was traumatized and even when I quit my job, I left Lagos and returned to my hometown of Benin. My life was never the same because I lived in fear ”.
Nigerians who have experienced the brutality inflicted by SARS first hand have been encouraged to join the protest this week.
Argus weekend
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