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Opinions on Sunday, October 18, 2020
Columnist: Nana Osei Boateng
2020-10-18
The #ENDSARS was started by Jack Robinson
The Special Anti-Theft Squad (SARS) is a branch of the Nigerian police force under the Criminal Force intelligence and investigation department (FCIID).
SARS was created as a faceless police unit that conducts covert operations against crimes associated with armed robbery, vehicle theft, kidnapping, cattle theft, and crimes associated with firearms.
SARS has been reported to have perpetrated human rights abuses, illegal arrests and searches, illegal arrests and detentions, extrajudicial executions, sexual harassment of women and brutality on many young Nigerians. Therefore.
The #ENDSARS was started by Jack Robinson.
In 2017, according to Awosanya actively took up the campaign on social media alongside other activists, which later culminated in various advocates and protests against police brutality and the elimination of this unit.
According to the 2016 Amnesty International report, SARS is held responsible for human rights abuses, cruelty, degrading treatment of Nigerians in its custody and other widespread torture.
Between January 2017 and May 2020, SARS reported 82 cases of abuses and extrajudicial killings (Amnesty International, 2020 publication).
Now the big question is; ‘Isn’t there a quasi-SARS in almost every country in Africa and the world?’
If we are passionate about ending illegal police brutalities, abuses and killings; Why don’t we adopt the #ENDSARS protest as a continental and global fight and duly replicate the fight in almost every country, to put an end to these illegalities and save the lives of our own people?
In Ghana, many people, especially journalists, have been victims of various forms of police brutality. In addition, there are several suspects in the cases, who have been physically abused, victimized and illegally tortured in various ways by police personnel.
Don’t these amount to being under a SARS regimen?
Latif Iddrisu, a Ghanaian television journalist for the privately owned radio station JOYFM was beaten up by a group of police officers at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Accra on March 27, 2018.
Furthermore, the case of Corporal Lance Frederick Amanor, who assaulted a woman at the Shashi branch of Midlands Savings, cannot be forgotten.
In addition, the Ghanaian police fired warning shots to break up a demonstration against police brutality in West Africa and arrested Mr. Ernesto Yeboah, leader of the Economic Fighters League (EEF).
In all, some 20 people were killed in Ghana by police brutality in 2018. This excludes those who suffered varying degrees of injuries from such brutalities.
I think you will understand by now that the #ENDSARS protest is not a Nigerian fight. This should also be a fight of Ghanaians and several other citizens.
In South Africa, The Guardian reports that incidents of police brutality spiked in 312? from 2011 to 2012 compared to 2001 to 2002. There were also 720 deaths in police custody due to police action from 2011 to 2012.
In Bangladesh, the police killed a man named Shamim Reja at the Sonargaon Police Station.
During the Bersih protests in Malaysia, Malaysian police attacked protesters and killed one. The Malaysian police also punish prisoners for some crimes, such as robbery, drug trafficking and sexual abuse.
The situation is no different in Turkey, as they have a history of police brutality, including the use of torture, especially between 1977 and 2002. In 2012, several officials were sentenced to prison for their role in the death in custody of the political activist Engin Ceber.
Furthermore, in Austria, Nicola Jevremovic, a Roma Serb, tried to pay a friend’s parking fine and was harassed by the police on April 24, 1996.
The United States of America has built a notorious reputation for police brutality, having reported far more incidents of homicides by police officers than the rest of the Western world. The American police killed 1,093 people in 2016 and 1,146 in 2015.
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