ONITSHA (SundiataPost) – Human rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), has said that 200 Nigerians have died in the now suspended #EndSARS protests and looting of warehouses across the country.
The group also said 30,400 lives have been lost since 2004 in SARS (Special Anti-Robery Squad) cells and operations nationwide.
With specific reference to Anambra State, Intersociety said 3,300 persons were killed in SARS operations from 2004 to present.
According to a report made available to Sundiata Post on Sunday, 140,000 Nigerians were killed outside the law since 1990.
The full report reads as follows:
200 EndSARS Protesters Killed By Security Personnel & Pro Government Hoodlums
From general information obtained across the country, Intersociety is estimating credibly that no fewer than 200 defenseless EndSARS protesters were killed by soldiers and police personnel and pro Government hoodlums. The killings took place between 7th October when the protests started in Lagos and Friday, 23rd October 2020. Military terror is still being reported in Abia, Ebonyi and Rivers States and with the latest ‘use maximum force’ order issued by IGP, Abubakar Adamu, death tolls are expected to rise further across the country particularly in South-South and Southeast in coming weeks. While soldiers and police personnel used deadly and excessive force on protesters in different parts of the country, Islamist hoodlums allied with the present Government of Nigeria targeted and attacked the protesters in some parts of Northern Nigeria including Abuja, FCT, Kano and Plateau. They also targeted and unleashed violence against properties belonging to protesters and those owned by Christian traders resident in the named areas.
It is also our gathered information that the violent dimension introduced in the protests was reportedly originally hatched by the Government and its security forces for purpose of discrediting the peaceful protests and prepare grounds for massacring of the defenseless protesters. This was further fueled by the shooting to death of between 15 and 20 defenceless citizens at Lekki Tollgate and injuring of multiple dozens as well as the discovery of hoarding of COVID-19 palliatives in several Government Emergency Aid warehouses. Food and humanitarian experts told Intersociety that the hoarding was deliberately designed by politicians to use the hoarded items for electioneering after re-bagging and re-branding them.
The breakdown of the not less than 200 EndSARS protest deaths across the country shows that at least 50 defenceless citizens were killed in different parts of Lagos including Mushin (at least 17 deaths), Lekki (between 15 and 20 deaths), Ikorodu (at least six deaths), Ketu (at least two deaths), Orile (at least three deaths), Alausa, etc. The Lagos killings included the 15-20 deaths recorded at Lekki Army shooting of Tuesday night, 20th Oct 2020. A key witness of the killings, Ms Obianuju Catherine Udeh (a.k.a. DJ Switch), had disclosed to the Premium Times that she and her protesting colleagues/survivors “handed over fifteen bodies of the slain protesters to the Army unit commander that killed the protesters and the corpses were taken away by his team”.
In Southeast, not less than 53 deaths were recorded involving: Abia, at least 20 deaths (i.e. Ariaria/Uratta Junction-seven deaths, SAMEC/Ariaria-one death, Faulks Road-two deaths (a woman and her child), Ngwa Road/Obohia-one death and Azikiwe/Asa Road-two deaths). Anambra recorded at least eight deaths, Enugu 10 deaths (Abakpa-four deaths, Coal Camp-four deaths and Queens College area-two deaths), Ebonyi five deaths and Imo ten deaths (Isiala-Mbano-five deaths and Umuna-Orlu-five deaths). In South-South, Rivers and Edo topped the list with not less than 25 deaths. Multiple dozens of defenseless citizens, numbering not less than 50 were also reported killed by soldiers and police personnel in Abuja (at least five deaths), FCT, Oyo Ogun, Ondo, Kano, Plateau and others. The number of protesters killed by pro Government’s Islamic hoodlums across the North is between 15 and 20. They included four killed at Sabon Gari in Kano and six killed in the Apo Mechanic Village, Abuja, FCT.
Blame Nigerian Government For Violence & Property Destruction
The present central Government of Nigeria and the country’s security agencies; not the protesters and their organisers should culpably be blamed for violent dimension the EndSARS protests took and property destructions that followed. Had the Government acted wisely by directing its security agencies not to shoot at the protesters but to guard and protect them and their protests, the violence that greeted same would not have occurred. Also had the Government not allowed its allied Islamist hoodlums to launch attacks on the protesters including killing dozens of them and burning their vehicles and other properties, the violence would have not have occurred.
30,400 Deaths Recorded In Police Cells In Nigeria Mainly Perpetrated By SARS Since 2004
It is the research projection of Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law that using national projection via available independent research statistics, average of 10 unprocessed and untried citizens are killed monthly in Police custodies in each State across Nigeria. This further translates to 370 persons monthly and 4,440 yearly. In other words, Nigeria as a whole is most likely to have lost in the past sixteen years or since 2004 a total of 30,400 unprocessed citizens to police extrajudicial killings mainly perpetrated by its SARS. The NPF particularly its SARS has also earned notoriety in permanently disappearing hundreds, if not thousands of Nigerians every year. In other words, citizens arrested outside the law and taken into secret custodies are killed without the knowledge of their families and outside the confines of official records.
Defining Unprocessed Detainees: ‘Unprocessed detainees or detained citizens’ are those taken into custodies and pre-judicially accused of breaking the law and tortured to death or shot dead after they have been taken into custodies without undergoing full processes of arrest, investigation, prosecution, fair trial, conviction and sentencing. The allowed police power to kill in the line of ‘exchange of gunfire’ with violent criminal suspects is hardly the case. Their torture and extrajudicial killings by NPF personnel particularly its SARS are in most cases, fueled by trio of hate, corrupt and crude or unprofessional policing.
3,300 Deaths Recorded In Police Cells In Anambra Mostly Under SARS Since 2004
In Anambra State, owing to combination of blue-collar setting, hate, corrupt and crude or unprofessional policing, average of 15 unprocessed citizens are killed monthly in police custodies across the State since 2004 or in the past sixteen years, with most of the killings or between 80% and 90% perpetrated by SARS. This further translates to yearly average of 180 and past sixteen years or since 2004 average total of 3,300. It is also on record that Police SARS atrocities became the order of the day in Anambra State from 2004. Further breakdown of the total 3,300 unlawful deaths indicates that in three years of the interloper regime of Dr Chris Ngige or between 2003 and 2006, no fewer than 550 died, between 2006 and 2014-a period of eight years when Obi held sway, no fewer than 1,450 died and between March 17, 2014 and 2020, a period of six-and-a half years of the present Obiano Administration, no fewer than 1,200 have been killed extra-judicially.
140,000 Nigerian Citizens Killed Outside The Law In 21 Years (Since 1999)
From our previous and updated research records, Nigeria had lost not less than 140,000 citizens outside the law in the past 21 years or since June 1999. ‘Killings outside the law’ are killings not permissible in law or killings that ought not to have occurred, but occurred on account of failure or conspiracy of relevant State organs and their security agencies; or killings perpetrated by state through state terrorization of the general or particular citizenry on account of their religion or tribe; or such killings supervised by state using its allied armed groups or mob actions. They exclude ‘street crime’ related killings but include unlawful military and police killings, vigilante killings, jihadist killings, ‘eco-cultural-jihadist killings and killings resulting from ethnic and communal violence.
From our December 2016 updates, not less than 101,000 defenceless Nigerians were killed outside the law between June 1999 and Dec 2016 and between Jan 2017 and 2020; 40, 000 defenseless Nigerians have died outside the law. They include 18,000 deaths in police custodies on average of 4,450 yearly; 7,000 Christian deaths perpetrated by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, not less than 4,000 deaths (asymmetrically represented) by Jihadist Boko Haram/ISWAP and some 4,000 mainly indigenous Hausa Muslim deaths perpetrated by Jihadist ‘Bandits’ in Muslim areas of Zamfara, Kastina, Sokoto and Kaduna (Birnin Gwari). The rest are over 600 military killings, 2020 COVID-19 killings, EndSARS killings, killing of Christians by Jihadist ‘Bandits’ and other killings arising from ethnic and communal violence.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Amaka Onuoha, Esq., Chinwe Umeche, Esq, Obianuju Igboeli, Esq., Ndidiamaka Bernard, Esq., and Comrade Sam Kamanyaoku
