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- A hearing has begun after 12 activists were shot in anti-police demonstrators last week in Nigeria, CNN reported.
- Protests have been ongoing in the country following a viral video showing officers from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad dragging two men out of a hotel room and shooting one of them.
- Protesters demanded that SARS be shut down and the hashtag #EndSARS has become a rallying cry.
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A government judicial panel in Nigeria’s capital of Lagos began hearings after at least 12 activists were shot and killed during anti-police protests last week, CNN reported, citing figures from Amnesty International. Ten killed at the Lekki Toll Gate and two in Alausa.
Protests erupted across Nigeria the past few weeks, calling for the end of the country’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad, also known as SARS. The movement is known as #EndSARS.
This notorious police force has long been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings and torture in the country.
Last week, security forces were accused of firing at protesters, killing several people, and injuring dozens more. Videos circulated on social media showing uniformed men with guns approaching a crowd of protesters at Lekki Toll Gate in an upscale neighborhood in Lagos. The footage also showed people running and screaming as shots were fired, Business Insider previously reported.
—Reuters (@Reuters) October 21, 2020
"They were firing and they were advancing straight at us. It was chaos. Somebody got hit straight beside me and he died on the spot," one source told the BBC.
In a tweet, President Muhammadu Buhari said he supported the hearings convened by the governor of Lagos state, which will look into SARS allegations and the alleged shooting last week.
"The Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos State Govt has my full support, as it commences sitting this week. I'm confident that all the State Panels will help ensure justice is done on behalf of the peaceful protesters and law enforcement agents who sadly lost their lives," Buhari said.
The Guardian reported that the movement to end SARS reignited this year after a video surfaced of earlier this month of a officers dragging two men from a hotel and then shooting one of them outside.
A week later, following online demands and protests, the Nigeria Police Force said it dissolved SARS on October 11. However, protests have resumed.
A "new unit called SWAT has been formed whose officers will receive training on police conduct and use of force by the international committee of the Red Cross," The Wall Street Jounal reported. There is concern that the same SARS officers will be absorbed into the new force without accountability, The Journal explained.
Buhari had promised reform, but many in the country did not believe him and said the country had failed to deliver on past promises to change.
Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian lawyer in London who represents victims of police brutality told The Washington Post: "People are tired of lip service."