Despite the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s avowals to end police brutality, introduce reforms and bring erring personnel to justice, the Enugu youths in their thousands stormed the major streets of the coal city on Tuesday morning protesting against the activities of SARS.
The demonstrators on dress code of white and black converged at the famous Okpara Square with placards; popular musicians like Phyno, Flavor, Kcee Limpopo and a host of other celebrities led the protest.
From Okpara Square, the demonstrators trekked to Old Park, State CID and then to Government House where the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Cecilia Ezeilo addressed the protesters.
The youths demand immediate release of all arrested protesters in other states of the nation; justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families; setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconduct (within 10days); psychological evaluation and retraining of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be redeployed; and increase of police salary so that they are adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens.
End Special Anti-Robbery Squad, #EndSARS, is a social movement that started on Twitter calling for banning of the special squad, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad was founded in 1992 by former police commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda;
Due to the existence of three other anti-robbery squads operational at that time, Midenda named his team Special Anti-Robbery Squad to distinguish them from the rest.
Over the weekend, several demonstrators have joined the protest all over the states of the nation. While some states recorded casualties, Enugu Youths’ protest was adjudged by observers and some Enugu lawmakers as peaceful.
Ibenaku Onoh, member representing Enugu North constituency, commends the peaceful conducts of the protesters. He also acknowledged that there are some bad eggs within the police force that do not conform to the mandate of the institution; he called for police reform.
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