#EndSARS protests: Buhari orders IGP to address concerns of Nigerians

• Protests receive global support

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to address issues raised by Nigerians in their protests against police inhuman treatment and extrajudicial killings in the country.

Rights activists, artistes and celebrities have taken to the streets in major cities protesting the actions and demanding the scrapping of the police Special Anti-armed Robbery Squad.

The protests have assumed a global dimension as many Nigerians in other countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, especially celebrities joined the campaign.

Apart from Nigeria, the #EndSARS hashtag has been trending in the UK, Canada, and the US.

British-Nigerian actor John Boyega expressed support for the campaign.

The President said in a statement he personally signed on Friday that he had with the IGP over the issue.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had earlier met with IGP Adamu on the same public outcry against SARS and expressed support for the immediate reform of the police unit starting with a ban on the stop-and-search patrols.

Buhari said, “I met again with the IGP tonight. Our determination to reform the police should never be in doubt.”

“I am being briefed regularly on the reform efforts ongoing to end police brutality and unethical conduct, and ensure that the Police are fully accountable to the people.”

He said he had ordered the IGP “to conclusively address the concerns of Nigerians regarding these excesses and ensure erring personnel are brought to justice.”

The President urged the people to exercise patience and be calm, assuring them of adequate protection and stressed that the majority of those in the Nigeria Police Force were patriotic and remained committed to the protection of the lives and property of Nigerians.

Nigerian musicians such as Davido, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Runtown, Falz, Wulrd and DJ Spinal joined the anti-SARS street protests in Lagos

Award-winning actress Nse Ikpe-Etim has also tweeted to join Edward’s protest.

A professional athlete and owner of the first Black-owned cigar line in the UK Mike Edwards has said he would be leading a protest to Nigeria High Commission in London on Sunday.

The protests sweeping through many streets of Abuja and states like Lagos, Osun, Edo and Delta were against the extortion, illegal detention, and extra-judicial killings of Nigerians, mostly youths, by members of the police unit.

Specifically, the protesters are calling for the scrapping of the police’s notorious unit.

The protests followed the footage showing officers from the SARS police unit dragging two men from a hotel in Lagos and shooting one of them in the street.

In the disturbing footage taken by visitors at a hotel and posted on to social media armed officers of the SARS can be seen dragging the victims from the hotel compound into the street before one of the men is shot.

This has prompted the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to announce the ban of SARS and other tactical police units from stop-and-search patrols, nationwide.