ENDSARS: The average Nigerian has a lot in common with members of SARS and the Nigerian Police Force
How the EndSARS protest started
20th October 2020 is a day many Nigerians will never forget in a haste.
On this day, many Nigerians were killed by trigger happy military men, their only offence was being present at the Lekki toll gate on the night of their murder.
The events that lead to the protests and murder of these innocent victims started on Saturday 3 October 2020, when a video showing a SARS police officer shooting a young Nigerian in front of Wetland Hotel, Ughelli, Delta State trended on the Internet.
Two days later which was on the 5th October 2020, another report surfaced of SARS officers killing a 20-year-old upcoming musician named Daniel Chibuike, popularly called Sleek, after shouting 'Thief', before shooting Sleek as they ran through a supermarket.
Before the lekki massacre were stories of innocent young men killed by the SARS group in Awkuzu, in Oyi local government of Anambra state under the command of one RTD CSP Nwafor.
Nwafor was said to have arrested countless innocent young men, extorted money from their parents with false promises of the release of their sons after which he would kill and dump their bodies in Ezu River, located in the same Anambra state.
According to Punch newspaper in an article titled
"Untold Stories of SARS deadliest den"
"Corpses numbering about 35 were on January 19, 2013, discovered floating on the Ezu River at the boundary between Anambra and Enugu states in Amansea, Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State"
On the right: Photo of the brutally tortured dead bodies floating on Ezu river
On the left: a photo of CSP Nwafor
Awkuzu SARS has been accused of several crimes ranging from murdering innocent young boys to selling their body parts to ritualists and CSP Nwafor the main culprit in all of these, is still free.
Here is a personal account of an experience I had some years ago.
I can still remember that fateful day like it was yesterday.
On that fateful morning, I boarded a bus from Owerri to Calabar; almost all the roads were in pretty bad condition, with the way our bus was 'dancing' due to large potholes on the road, I feared I was going to have a concussion from hitting my head against the ceiling and the window frame of the bus.
Aside from all these inconveniences, our journey was peaceful at least until we got to Itu, a local government around the boundary between Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
My attention was divided; I was so engrossed with the article that I was reading online that I didn't notice the officers who were standing along the road.
"Stop! Stop there! The law enforcement officer yelled at our driver.
I quickly raised my head to know what the yelling was for.
"Pack this way he said pointing at the side of the road"
The driver slowed down immediately and did exactly as he was ordered to do.
These officers quickly followed our vehicle; the moment our driver stopped the car, they opened the passengers' door like it was a box of treasure.
"You, you, you, you and you! come down!" one of the officers said pointing at two youngsters and three men in their thirties.
Open your bags! He thundered as the young men came out of bus.
Hesitatingly they began opening their backpacks and travellers' bags for them to search.
The police officers searched the bags thoroughly, but they found nothing incriminating.
Still desperate for a 'proof'
They ordered the three older men to go back into the bus while the two youngsters were told to stay back.
Get out your phones and insert your passwords! Quickly!
One officer who looked like he was in charge of the rest thundered.
By now, the boys were afraid and agitated but it didn't deter them from doing as they were told to do.
After inserting the passcodes, they handed over their phones to the officers who went straight to their WhatsApp and started going through their chats.
"You are yahoo boys"
one of the officers said satisfactorily,
"You two are trying to swindle some white women of their money"
"No sir, not at all"
the youngsters protested.
"We are not bad boys"
I did not see the chats, so I can't tell who was lying or saying the truth.
After several back and forth with the boys, they took them to their makeshift office, on the other side of the road, opposite where our bus was packed,
But from where we were, we could hear the men saying to the boys;
"If you want us to release you guys, you two must give us 50,000 naira each"
Oga, we don't have such an amount of money they pleaded
"Then get ready to sleep here" one of them threatened.
All this while, none of us, not even our driver got out of the car, we remained in the vehicle and observed through our windows as events unfolded.
Hmmm! Just take a look at their hair, one of the passengers, an elderly man of about sixty-five years said in disgust while staring hard at the young boys.
'Umu yahoo!'
Okwaya! A younger passenger shouted;
"You send them to school to study, they go and follow bad gang".
Immediately almost everyone in the bus started criticizing the boys.
Driver biko hapu ha, let's leave them here and continue with our journey, I have a business to do in Calabar, the elderly man said.
It's true, his fellow critics chanted, let's leave them here.
No matter what, the officers do not have any right to search their phones, the driver said, totally ignoring the requests of the belligerent passengers.
If they didn't search their phones, how would they have known that they are fraudsters? one man asked.
There were three Reverend Sisters in our bus and all this while, they were silent until one of them spoke up.
We can't just leave these young boys here, besides we don't know what these men are up to.
Please, driver you are a father, go down and beg them to release them, they are still very young.
Besides, if they are truly fraudsters, what's the difference between them and these officers? They are willing to take a bribe and let the boys go Scott free?
Why are they demanding 50,000 naira from each of them? and what business does the drug enforcement agency have with internet fraud, is that the work of the EFCC? ( Economic and financial crime commission)
The driver saw reasons with her and got down almost immediately.
He went up to where the young boys and the officers were and began to beg on their behalf, but the officers did not bulge.
"If you boys don't produce 100,000 naira, you will sleep here. The boss-like officer threatened again before walking away from them to stop other buses.
The boys began begging the other officers,
"We don't have up to that amount"
In a bid to convince the officers, they showed them their account balances through their bank mobile apps.
Photo Credit: Tobi Oshinnaike, Unsplash.com.
Convinced that the boys were totally honest about not having that amount of money, the other officers excused themselves and went to talk to their boss.
By the time they returned to where the boys and the driver were, the other officers had succeeded in changing their boss's mind;
He took every dime in the bank accounts of these boys before releasing them.
We spent over one hour at the checkpoint with these officers and by the time the youngsters were allowed to go, the officers had stopped more buses and ordered more than 15 guys out from their various buses only that this time around, they were not as fortunate as the young boys from my bus: despite their pleas, their drivers and co-passengers left them behind and went their way.
Till today, I still ask myself;
What was the fate of those young boys that were left in the middle of nowhere by their drivers and co-passengers?
If that Reverend Sister hadn't intervened, what would have been the fate of the boys on my bus?
They pleaded earnestly for us to help them but we drove away without begging or asking our driver to beg on their behalf
Our driver was also very nervous, out of fear, he drove off without thinking twice.
Why didn't we caution those officers, after all, they were not more than twelve in number or was it because they were armed?
Why did the other passengers support this type of lawlessness?
Each time I see or hear of any form of injustice in Nigeria, I remember the words of the famous German Lutheran Pastor
Martins Niemoller:
First, they came, for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
This is the summary of the mentality that brought us to where we are now.
We as Nigerians have actively or passively created the problems that now haunt us.
Most Nigerians support jungle justice and extrajudicial killings, now tell me, what's the difference between us and that triggers happy police officers?
About a year ago, when the news about the rape of some women in Abuja by some of the members of the Nigerian Police force using pure water sachets in place of condoms went viral, as expected, a lot of Nigerians didn't have a problem with it.
Here are excerpts of some of the comments and posts I saw on social media;
"it's not as if what the police did was right, but why should someone choose to be a prostitute?"
She brought it upon herself".
"It's not like I'm in support of the policemen o, but the women deserved what they got, you are a married woman and you went out to party at night, good for you".
"What was a woman doing outside by that time of the night?"
Then some went ahead to say;
"It's not like the men committed any crime after all the women are prostitutes, the only problem here is that the policemen did not pay the prostitutes for services rendered, LOL"
Within a few minutes, these arguments escalated to a full-blown gender war between
Feminist and Nigerian women Vs Nigerian men and other Nigerian women who were tagged
'Pick me' by their opposers.
When SARS which is the acronym for "Special Anti Robbery Squad" started going after young men with tattoos on their bodies, ripped jeans and dreadlocks, many Nigerians called it cleansing and sanitising the country.
"The youths should learn to dress better", they said.
Now, the same SARS is going after everyone; the old, young men, women and children alike, suddenly, everyone is screaming ENDSARS?
Let's not forget young Tina who was gunned down by a bloodthirsty police officer while waiting by the roadside.
After the coup which was tagged the Igbo coup, the counter-coup together with aggravated anger due to the ethno-religious riots in northern Nigeria, and the failure of General Gowon's administration to implement the Aburi accord, the Civil war which is popularly known as the Biafran war broke out this war led to the death of over 2 million people.
Women were killed and gang-raped, Men and children were murdered in cold blood, gory photos of children suffering from kwashiorkor were seen in newspapers because the Nigerian government chose to create a blockade to prevent food from entering the Southeast.
What happened after that? Nothing!
Till today, many Nigerians still say
"It's good! Secessionists shouldn't be handled with kids' gloves"
"You can't be fighting a war and feeding your enemies, they have to be taught a lesson so that others can learn"
Since we as a people and our government are so good at teaching lessons, I am quite surprised that we and our government are yet to resist corrupt politicians
The worst part of our hypocrisy is how we act surprised each time this evil we nursed: rears its ugly head to devour us; the misappropriation and diversion of funds meant for internally displaced people in Borno state shouldn't come as a surprise to any of us, isn't the diversion of funds for the IDP similar to the gunning down of planes carrying relief items to the Biafrans sixty years ago?
1995: when Gideon Akaluka was beheaded and his head paraded on the streets of Kano because his wife allegedly used the pages of the Koran as toilet paper for her baby, what happened? Nothing!
His murderers are still alive, walking freely amongst us.
Some people now insist that this account is a hoax, maybe, denying the truth is a coping mechanism for them.
From Dec 12th-14th Dec 2015 over 300 shite Muslims were killed because
"They wanted to assassinate the army chief of staff"
How does a roadblock by angry young people justify the killings of hundreds of people?
As expected many Nigerians spoke in defence of the army;
"Shite is a terrorist group, it serves them right: they got what they deserve!
In 2016, an evangelist by the name
'Eunice Olawale' was killed by Muslim extremists when she went for her usual morning evangelism, what did some Nigerians say about it?
"It serves her right, why should she be preaching close to a mosque"?
There was no outrage, no protests, nothing!
A wife and a dear mother to seven children were killed in cold blood.
Then came the killings of unarmed Pro Biafran protesters also known as IPOB members by the members of the Nigerian army.
Like the shites they were tagged terrorists, I can vividly remember having conversations with some people about this.
I can also remember seeing posts and comments of many Nigerians on social media especially on Twitter supporting the Nigerian government,
How can you support iniquity and wickedness, fuel tribalism and hate and then expect it not to engulf you?
What we failed to realise is that all while other people died in the hands of these unkind officers, we were like fattened ram waiting to be killed by feast organizers.
It's a great and wonderful thing that we are finally finding our voices, but it isn't enough.
We still have to reflect, think and sensitize ourselves and those around us on the need to be sensible and unbiased, we need to purge ourselves of tribalism, hate, religious bigotry and Nepotism.
We can't continue to collect bags of rice and money in exchange for our votes every election year.
We also need to understand that decades of deep-seated hate, injustice and moral decadence can not be wiped out by a two-week END SARS protest, it's going to take a lot of hard work, frankness and consistency in doing the right thing.
I pray to God to bless Nigeria.
Read and download my interesting short story titled
On Amazon kindle:
Beyond Agadez; the untold story of the victims of human trafficking and organized crime
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References;
Beheading stirs Nigerians tension.
Independent.co.uk by Karl Maier.
16th August 1995.
Nigerian Civil war: 50 years after my Biafra war story by Onochie Anibeze
Vanguardngr.com.
The killing of Pro Biafra protesters, 2015-2016
Wikipedia.
Zaria massacre: Human rights watch says over 300 killed
Premiumtimesng.com
23rd December 2015.
END SARS Wikipedia
Punch newspaper ng:
'Untold Stories of SARS deadliest den'