A number of police officers in Nigeria are facing dismissal and prosecution for illegal detentions and torture.
A panel set up by Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission has recommended the dismissal and prosecution of the police officers for torture, extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions.
The committee, set up in the wake of mass street protests against police brutality in 2020, has not said how many officers it wants to be dismissed or prosecuted.
The commission is expected to make that public at a later date.
The panel headed by a senior judge, Sulaiman Galadima, has also ordered the payment of compensation to victims of police brutality.
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Earlier this month, dozens of victims or their families had received similar compensations totalling about $700,000 (£649,000) – the first such payments since the national panel was set up.
End SARS protests
The protests which took place nearly two years ago under the hashtag #EndSars were against a notorious police unit known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad or Sars.
On October 4 2020, a video went viral showing SARS officers dragging two men from a hotel and shooting one of them outside.
A few days later, protests erupted across Nigeria.The Nigerian army violently repressed the peaceful protest at the Lekki toll gate, shooting at the protesters and killing at least 12 people.
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They forced the authorities to disband the unit – created to fight violent crime including armed robberies and kidnappings.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating the recent crackdown on EndSARS protesters in Nigeria.
The Nigerian military is accused of opening fire on peaceful protesters who hit the streets against police brutalities.
According to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari some 51 civilians, 11 police officers and seven soldiers were killed during the riots.
Both the police and military have rejected a report by human rights group Amnesty International that the security forces opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring a number of people.
In a statement, the office of the ICC prosecutor said it had received information on alleged crimes.
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The examination will “assess whether the legal criteria for opening an investigation under the Rome Statute are met”.
The ICC said it would make findings of the preliminary examination public.
LAGOS-(MaraviPost)-Nigeria’s vice-president Yemi Osinbaj has promised justice for victims shot during protests against police brutality.
Amnesty International said the security forces killed at least 12 people in the main city Lagos on Tuesday.
BBC understands that the security forces denied killing protesters, causing more anger.
Gunshots continued to be heard in an area of Lagos on Thursday, following Wednesday’s unrest that saw buildings torched and looted and police shooting into the air to enforce a curfew.
The state government imposed an indefinite round-the-clock curfew in Lagos, a coastal city which sprawls over several islands and mainland suburbs and has a population of about 20 million, on Tuesday evening.
The protests began about two weeks ago with mostly young people demanding the disbandment of a notorious police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars), using the hashtag #EndSars to rally crowds to the streets.
The protests morphed into demands for wider reforms to the police, and an end to alleged bad governance.
Earlier this year Amnesty said it had documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill treatment and extra-judicial execution between January 2017 and May this year against members of Sars.
What did the vice-president say?
In a series of tweets, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo did not confirm that the security forces shot dead protesters on Tuesday, but said that his “heart goes out to all the victims of the Lekki shootings, and also the policemen and all other men and women who lost their lives in the past few days in different parts of Lagos & other states”.
“I spoke to some of those in hospital. The pain of these terrible events is palpable in our towns and cities, and some losses are irreplaceable, but we can and will get justice for all of them,” he said.
Yemi Osinbajo, who lives in Lagos, has been in office since 29 May 2015
Earlier, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said that about 25 people had been wounded in an “unfortunate shooting incident”, and one man had died by “blunt force trauma to the head”.
In a BBC interview, Nigeria’s Police Minister Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi denied that the security forces shot dead protesters.
“I cannot say actually who is involved in the shooting. There could be some miscreants who are having guns, shooting people here and there,” he said.
What’s the latest on the unrest?
On the Lagos mainland on Thursday, a BBC reporter heard gunshots in the Surulere area and saw tyres burning.
In the suburb of Lekki, a few miles from the toll gate where Tuesday’s shooting happened, another journalist posted a video of a popular shopping mall ablaze.
The High Court on Lagos island, the city’s oldest neighbourhood, was also set ablaze on Wednesday.
Residents said the building was looted by vandals who took away goods that had been confiscated by the court, and that the blaze lasted long into the night.
A major Nigerian TV station with links to a ruling party politician was also torched, while the palace of the most senior traditional leader in Lagos was ransacked.
Amnesty International Nigeria said 10 of the 12 people killed on Tuesday were at the Lekki toll gate.
Evidence from hospital records and witnesses showed “the Nigerian military opened fire on thousands of people who were peacefully calling for good governance and an end to police brutality” at the toll gate, Amnesty added.
PRETORIA-(MaraviPost)-As thousands of people in Nigeria continue to protest over violence and social injustice by police unit called SARS( #ENDSARS), Nigerian nationals based in South Africa on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 also demonstrated against the shooting of peaceful demonstrators in Nigeria.
The demonstrators marched to Abuja embassy in Pretoria while carrying banners reading “End police brutality”.
It also said another group of about 400 people demonstrated in Cape Town and vowed to continue picketing until they see a change in Nigeria.
In his view,Well-known South African rap star AKA voicedunity with the people of Nigeria, it further reported.
“How can a government have no regard for the life of its citizen’s people shoot to kill their own countrymen and women? This is insane, we are living in an insane time in human history.” He said.
However, South African opposition party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has asked the Nigerian government to control its army and security services.
BBC News, Amnesty international have confirmed that at least 12 peaceful demonstrators were killed on 20 October in Lagos.
President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari addressed the public that he will ensure that all those responsible for misconduct or wrongful acts are brought to justice.
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