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The Nigerian military has been accused of gunning down unarmed citizens protesting police brutality, as demonstrations continue across the country.
The incident occurred on Tuesday night, at a toll booth in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, where protesters had gathered. In videos posted online, they can be heard singing the national anthem in the dark as the shooting begins.
The human rights organization Amnesty International said it had received “credible evidence” of multiple deaths at the scene. Photographs from the aftermath show shattered toll gate windows and burning buildings in the area.
Akinbosola Ogunsanya, an eyewitness, told CNN the lights went out before the shooting began. “Members of the Nigerian army came up to us and started shooting,” he said, adding that ambulances were unable to access the scene.
“They were shooting, they were shooting directly, directly at us, and many people were injured. I just survived, barely. ”
“The Nigerian authorities turned a peaceful protest against police brutality into a shootout, showing the horrible depths they are willing to go to suppress the voices of citizens,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigerian researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement to The Irish Times. .
‘Withdraw the military’
“The authorities must immediately remove the military from the streets and identify and prosecute the officers responsible or complicit in any excessive use of force against peaceful protesters,” he said.
European Union Foreign Affairs Director Josep Borrell called the news of the shootings “alarming” and urged that those responsible be brought to justice.
US presidential candidate Joe Biden said his “heart goes out to all those who have lost a loved one in violence.”
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu called what happened “some of the darkest gradients in our history as a state and as a people” and said he had ordered an investigation.
“There are no excuses for the unfortunate incident that took place last night, and as Governor, I apologize for every action and inaction,” he wrote on Twitter.
However, Sanwo-Olu said the protests had been taken up by “arsonists, thugs and anarchists”, who used them as an excuse to “unleash chaos in the state.”
A 24-hour curfew has been implemented in the city, which has a population of approximately 14 million.
The protests began in early October, after agents from a branch of the Nigerian police force, the Special Anti-Theft Squad (Sars), were filmed dragging two inert bodies from a Lagos hotel onto the streets and then apparently shooting one from them. The unit was known for extorting, kidnapping and even murdering innocent Nigerians.
Torture cases
Between 2017 and 2020, Amnesty International documented 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial execution by Sars.
President Muhammadu Buhari said the unit would be disbanded on October 11, but victims expressed concern about the redeployment of Sars agents. There have already been widespread reports of police violence by other units against protesters.
#EndSARS has been trending on Twitter around the world.
