Six years after #EndSARS, teargas, protest mars memorial

…as justice remains elusive

Operatives of the Nigerian Police Force fired tear gas at residents, journalists and opposition politicians at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos on Tuesday, disrupting a memorial for victims of the October 2020 #EndSARS protests and renewing questions about police accountability six years after the demonstrations.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos State, and Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) were among those caught in the tear gas as police dispersed participants gathered for a wreath-laying ceremony organised by the Enough is Enough (EiE) movement.

The disruption triggered panic, with participants fleeing for
safety. Some were reportedly injured, others struggled to breathe amid the fumes, and traffic built up along the busy Lekki expressway.

Organisers said they had brought 15 wreaths, including one for
Pelumi Onifade, a journalist shot dead in Lagos during the nationwide protests, but were unable to lay them before the ceremony was disrupted.

The incident highlighted concerns about the government’s handling
of public demonstrations and the slow pace of accountability for abuses that triggered the protests.

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) said Nigeria had failed to address the institutional weaknesses behind the #EndSARS uprising, warning that disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had not ended alleged police abuses.

“Disbanding SARS without dismantling impunity is not police reform,” the organisation said.

Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, CISLAC’s executive director, in a statement on Tuesday, said reports of torture, extortion, arbitrary detention, deaths in
custody and alleged extrajudicial killings continued, despite the national
outcry that forced the government to disband SARS in October 2020.

The organisation urged federal and state governments to publish, within 30 days, comprehensive reports on the implementation of judicial panel recommendations, outstanding compensation, unresolved investigations and pending prosecutions.

CISLAC further urged the Presidency to publish a verifiable police
reform accountability framework within 90 days, with measurable progress, including credible prosecutions, within 12 months.

Protecting lives, it said, was a constitutional obligation, “not political favours”.

Background

The October 2020 protests began as a youth-led campaign against
alleged extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings by SARS before spreading nationwide into broader demands for accountable governance.

The events at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020, became a
defining moment in the protests after soldiers opened fire on demonstrators. A Lagos State judicial panel subsequently reported nine confirmed deaths and listed four other people as missing and presumed dead.

The panel’s findings, including its conclusions on the use of force, have been disputed by military and federal authorities.

Efforts to commemorate the victims have also faced police intervention. In 2022, officers fired tear gas at protesters who brought coffins and flowers to the tollgate, citing the need to ease traffic.

Although a bill to establish an #EndSARS Victims Compensation Fund passed second reading in the Senate in 2023, questions about justice,
compensation and implementation of the panel’s recommendations remain central to demands for accountability.

Who gave the order?

Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, in a statement on Tuesday, said Nigerians were still waiting for an answer to the question: “Who gave the order?”

He criticised President Bola Tinubu’s response to the 2020 killings, recalling remarks in which Tinubu questioned the protesters’ presence
at the tollgate and how long they had been there. Atiku argued that the
comments appeared to focus on the victims rather than those responsible for the shooting.

“The APC has governed Nigeria through these six years. It cannot keep asking Nigerians to remember the dead while refusing to confront the
unanswered questions. A government that cannot give citizens confidence that their lives matter has failed one of its most basic duties,” Atiku said.

The former VP linked the unresolved questions surrounding #EndSARS to the economic hardship facing Nigerians, citing petrol prices of N1,405 per litre and the experience of a young woman who, he said, resigned from her job because her salary could no longer cover transportation costs.

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, urged Nigerians not to forget the victims or accept injustice as normal.

“We must never forget. We must never normalise injustice,” Obi said, calling for a country where no citizen is punished for demanding good governance.

Six years after the uprising forced the disbandment of SARS, Tuesday’s disruption of the memorial highlighted the distance between that concession and the broader reforms demanded by protesters.