Image Credit: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
A non-governmental human rights advocacy organisation, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has said that despite the magnitude of the 2020 #EndSARS protest, the Nigerian government and its security leaders have failed to take the necessary people-oriented actions that would prevent a repeat of the protest.
RULAAC said this on Friday as it joins Nigerians to mark the third anniversary of the protest and killing of Nigerian youths at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos and many other parts of the country.
Questioning whether the government has come through in terms of the police reforms they promised during the protest, RULAAC in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, said the Nigerian government has ignored the recommendations made by the panels of inquiry set up in about 29 states across the country.
RULAAC said that none of the killers of the unarmed and innocent protesters had been brought to justice while the root causes of the protest which included police brutality, police violence and oppression of Nigerians had not stopped.
RULAAC said, “Three years after the #EndSARS protest across Nigeria, and the ugly aftermath of that spontaneous, youth-led rebellion against police brutality, the government and the leadership of security services do not seem to have demonstrated sufficient commitment to addressing the root causes of #EndSARS and to prevent its repeat. They behave like they have learnt no lessons.”
The organisation said, “#EndSARS happened because the government, especially the leadership of the police and police oversight failed to pay serious attention and take appropriate actions in response to numerous complaints and grievances against widespread police violence and oppression, and warnings about the likelihood of a rebellion against impunity for egregious human rights violations especially by certain units of the NPF.
“Some parts of the country are still suffering from the aftermath of EndSARS and its ruthless suppression by security forces at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos. Police officers themselves remain major targets of attacks in some parts of the country.
“The police are unable to respond to crime in some communities but are instead committing crimes and human rights violations against citizens both in the context of fighting insecurity and as tools of political repression.
“The recommendations in the reports of the various states and federal judicial panels of inquiry on complaints by victims of police brutality are yet to be implemented.
“Perpetrators are yet to be brought to account. Victims are yet to receive redress and remedies. Far-reaching reforms are yet to be initiated to prevent human rights violations, entrench the culture of accountability and restore public trust in the police.
“The promise to improve the welfare of police officers as a means of fighting corruption and humanizing the police has also not been fulfilled.”
RULAAC said that it would appear that the government made the promises merely to assuage public anger and then do anything once public attention shifted with the effluxion of time.
It stressed that the same types of violations that triggered the #EndSARS protest in October 2020 are still the daily experiences of most Nigerians in many parts of the country, especially the South-East, to date.
It said, “There have been some rays of hope in terms of increasing willingness by the police to engage with civil society as well as increasing transparency and determination to prioritize accountability.
“This manifests in the number of officers punished in recent times for sundry misconduct and publicly announced by the NPF. But these disciplinary actions are restricted to petit corruption and acts of incivility captured in video by citizens and exposed via social media.
“Otherwise, the institutional culture and tendency to cover up misconduct and shield erring personnel remains entrenched.
“This is demonstrated by the failure to effectively and conclusively investigate serious crimes and human rights violations, make the outcomes public, and bring perpetrators to account.
“Investigation into the grave allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings, conversion of money and property of executed detainees and the allegation of organ harvesting by some senior Police officers in Anambra State is yet to be concluded, findings made public and appropriate actions taken. There are many of such egregious violations across the country.
“The Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command is a concentration camp and human abattoir where several people who are randomly and arbitrarily arrested on a daily basis are indefinitely detained incommunicado, brutally tortured, executed, disappeared and/or extorted of huge sums of cash.
“No serious action has been taken by the authorities in response to several petitions and media reports exposing these atrocities.
“The culture of impunity remains unchecked at many police stations. Some police officers with notorious records of human rights violation and impunity refused to respond to summons by the #EndSARS panels of inquiry in some states. And there have been no consequences.
“All of these constitute the recipe - the potential trigger, for another #EndSARS.”
RULAAC therefore said that #EndSARS is a momentous epoch in Nigeria’s history in terms of police-citizen relations. It said that every anniversary of #EndSARS protest provides another opportunity for the government to do an honest re-examination of its commitments to addressing the root causes of the protest, the promises it made to ensure redress and justice and that it never happens again.
It said, “The deepening economic crisis in Nigeria is affecting the majority of ordinary Nigerians including poorly paid police officers and unemployed youths. These conditions predispose the youth to crime and make the police prone to corruption and violence.
“The government should make access to education available and affordable, and provide the enabling environment for job creation; prioritize police reform and stamp out corruption among elected and appointed government officials.
“Corruption fuels insecurity, robs the country of development and undermines the greater good of the greater majority.”