Monsurat Ojuade had just turned 18 when she was killed by a police officer, her sister Omolara said in a trembling voice.
News of her death, during a raid in her neighbourhood of Nigeria’s Lagos last month, shocked many in a country preparing to commemorate the first anniversary of EndSARS, a protest movement against police brutality that rocked major cities in the south.
The protests came to a grinding halt after October 20, 2020, the date of a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters at the Lekki tollgate, the epicentre of the demonstrations.
Monsurat’s death in September was for many a sign that police brutality has continued in Africa’s most populous country.
And for the youth that mobilised massively for the first time in decades, her death was also a reminder that their demands for change have not been heard, and pervasive impunity and corruption still exists.
“It was a Friday night, we were about to lock the shop. Monsurat saw some guys running,” said her sister Omolara Ojuade, speaking to AFP by phone.
“We were scared… someone started hitting the door — he didn’t identify as a policeman — and he shot through the gate at Monsurat,” the young woman recalled.
The officer in charge was suspended and is facing trial for murder but for the Ojuade family, much more is needed.
“They are not giving them (police) proper training,” said the sister. “As a police officer you cannot just come to someone’s gate and start shooting.”
Nothing changed
Last year’s protest movement, named after the social media hashtag #EndSARS, was first a campaign to end the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit, notorious for extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings.
After it snowballed into wider protests against bad governance, the authorities suspended the unit and promised reforms.
But the country’s youth were sceptical and continued to protest — until the Lekki crackdown.
A year later, many wonder if their efforts had any impact.
“Nothing has really changed,” said Amnesty International researcher Damian Ugwu. “SARS may have been disbanded, but there were only cosmetic changes.
“All the things people complained about, extortion, extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment, all those things are still within the police force,” said Ugwu.
Police training was given, but there were no in-depth reforms, and security forces remain under-resourced and poorly paid.
Harassment from corrupt police officers on the streets of Lagos has resumed, according to Femi, a taxi driver.
“You have to give them money, or you have problems with them.”
Outside the economic capital, some security agents do not wear an official uniform and use clubs or whips to threaten drivers, an AFP journalist witnessed.
After last year’s protests, police violence initially “decreased” said Rinu Oduala, one of the leading figures of EndSARS, but in recent months it “resumed with more brutality than ever before”.
The 22-year-old has launched Connect Hub, an NGO that works to document police violence, “to show the world why we are fighting”.
“We have in the space of a month, close to 100 cases reported. We get cases ranging from extrajudicial killings to extortions, harassment, profiling, arbitrary arrests, rape and other crimes committed by the Nigerian Police.”
Neither the government nor the police responded to AFP’s request for comment on her claims.
If police violence persists, it is mainly because of “impunity and (that) the government has not addressed that,” said Amnesty’s Ugwu.
“Few policemen have been brought to justice,” he said. “Most of the promises made by the police and the government have not been held.”
And in what is seen by many as a snub to the movement, the management of the company in charge of the Lekki tollgate, where the army shot at thousands of protesters on October 20, were never taken to court.
“I’ll never forget that night,” said Legend Agboola Onileowo.
The 29-year-old was at the tollgate when “the army came and shot on us (when) we were raising the Nigerian flag”.
According to Amnesty International, at least 10 people died.
Onileowo said he saw at least four dead bodies and five or six people with gunshot wounds.
The army later said it had fired only blanks and shot in the air.
One year on, the judicial panel meant to investigate what happened has yet to publish its conclusions, and the army has failed to show up on several occasions.
“I don’t expect anything from the government,” said Onileowo. “God will surely punish those people.”
...One year after #EndSARS, 300 protesters still in Kirikiri, says victim
One year after what victims described as genocide against #EndSARS protesters, 300 of them are still in Kirikiri Correctional centre in Lagos prison.
The victims were arrested on October 20, 2020, when soldiers stormed the Lekki toll gate in Lagos and allegedly shot at protesters, who had gathered that Tuesday, following a movement to end the excesses of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), an armed of police formed in 1992 to combat armed robbery and other serious crimes.
Protesters and passerby were reportedly shot and killed by troops deployed by the Nigerian army, who had earlier denied involvement in the shooting, while manyt were arrested at random after the protest for arson, illegal gathering and armed robbery.
The movement started nationwide on Thursday, October 8, 2020, after weeks of outrage and anger with videos and pictures showing police brutality, harassment and extortion across the country.
According to an activist and a coordinator of Coalition for Revolution in Lagos, Banwo Olagokun, there are 311 protesters who should be released unconditionally.
One of such persons was Nicholas Mba, who was arrested a week after the protest.
He explained to The Guardian how he spent eight months in Kirikiri medium prison with 300 others.
He said: “ In that prison, there are over 300 EndSARS protesters there.
“The worst day of my life was my first night in prison, when they told me that I was going to be embalmed. I never understood what they meant because I said why would I be embalmed, am I dead, it was at night I understood.
Monsurat
“That night was hell, they stripped me naked, and a lot happened that I cannot say all. It was a group that mounted pressure on the EndSARS panel for my release. Even till today my case is still in court and I am yet to understand the meaning of it all.”
Mba said he was charged for armed robbery, arson and rioting.
He said: “I had a casemate I never met in my life, except in prison. So I was surprised how he became my casemate in court. You see, that is the kind of country we are in. From Panti, we were transferred to Kirikiri medium prison at 2:00 a.m. I met a lot of scary people in the prison, murderers and real armed robbers.”
However his case was changed to illegal gathering at the last day he went to court after, which he was released in June.
“I asked my lawyer, if that was supposed to be the reason for my staying in prison for eight months. Anytime I remember this my mood changes, anytime I’m being asked or I remember this I feel bad, it reminds me a lot because I went through a lot things I wouldn’t want to recall. Since they have no compensation for what I have been through, I can’t fight the government. All I ask for is my free movement and the case in court should be discharged so I can live my normal life,” he said.
Another victim, Theophilus Ivwrogbo, who worked as a truck driver at a Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in Apapa, Lagos, got to the tollgate at a time when soldiers had begun shooting.
According to him, the employees of the company were asked to go home, following announcement of curfew by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on October 20, 2020.
He said: “When the shooting began, I was there and I was trying to run to the other side, when I was hit by a bullet. At first, I didn’t know I had been shot until I tried getting up again, then I fell. Someone who saw when I fell began to pull me by my shirt, while I struggled to move with him. It did not take long when he too was shot and he fell on me. My whole body was covered with his blood. There was no strength left in me to run, which made me pass out.”
Theophilus, a father of two has not been compensated and his case is not included among those at the EndSARS panel at Lekki.
DESPITE the lessons of the EndSARS protest, police brutality has not stopped.
Between November 2020 and October 2021 there have been over 100 cases of persons killed, brutalised and illegally detained by security agencies.
For instance, 17-year-old Oluwaferanmi Moses, a first-year student of Mechanical Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), was arrested on September 19 in Mushin , where he repairs cars and was transferred to Ijede, Ikorodu, where he spent 20 days while his mother was forced to pay N80, 000 for his release on October 8.
A motorist identified as Akorede was shot in the leg by a police officer in Oru, ijebu ode on Wednesday, October 13 by a police officer.
One of the officers was said to have shot him during a search. The State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi has said investigation would begin into the shooting.
Monsurat Ojuade, an18-year-old college graduate awaiting admission was killed by a trigger-happy cop, Sergeant Samuel Phillips on September 11, at her residence in Ijeshatedo, Surulere area of Lagos.
Sergeant Phillips has been dismissed and he is to be tried.
On May 31, a businessman based in Germany, Ugochi Unachukwu was killed at a checkpoint on his way to the airport in Imo State, as the police are yet to release report of investigations into the incident.
Another businessman, a 45-year-old Mathew Opara, was shot by soldiers on May 25 in Imo state, near Owerri.
According to reports he was killed by soldiers during a shooting at residents, while returning from work.
His relatives said the military admitted the killing but is yet to release details of the investigations.
According to Amnesty International, in May 2021, the Imo State Government announced the arrest of at least 400 people allegedly linked to Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Investigation by the group indicated that most of them were randomly picked up in their homes and off the streets and had nothing to do with ESN.
Some victims were allegedly arrested while walking on the streets, at a public bar and some for having birthmarks and tattoos.
For instance, Osai Ojigho, a 37-year-old man, was arrested by the police at Orji, in Imo State, on May 26 allegedly allegation belonging to IPOB.
#EndSARS
— AFP, The Guardian
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