Nigeria: The Massacre At The Lekki Toll Gate

 By Femi Falana

For several years, the human rights community had called for the prosecution of the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) over incessant arrests, detention, torture and extrajudicial killing of citizens. As such calls were ignored by the authorities the SARS intensified the brutalization of citizens particularly young people. The video of the reckless killing of an unarmed young man in Delta State sometime in the first week of October 2020 by trigger happy SARS officials went viral and led to  spontaneous street protests in many states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory. In its initial reaction to the protests the Federal Government announced that SARS would undergo some reforms.

Since the Government had ignored the reports of many administrative panels that  made a strong case for police reforms in the recent past  the youths distrusted the authorities  They continued the  peaceful protests and demanded for the immediate disbandment of the SARS.