Hakkeem Olatunji, The CableNG
Some Nigerians are calling for a second wave of the protests against police brutality — #EndSARS protest.
The hashtag topped Twitter trends on Monday with nearly 120,000 tweets as of 11:00 am.
The first wave of the #EndSARS protests lasted for 13 days in October as youths across the country took to the streets to condemn alleged human rights abuses by members of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS).
But hoodlums exploited the protests, unleashing violence on citizens and destroying property.
The demands of the demonstrators were immediate release of all arrested protesters; justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensations for their families; and setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reported police misconduct within a period of 10 days.
Other demands include; carrying out psychological evaluation and retraining of all disbanded SARS operatives before they are redeployed (this should be verified by an independent body), and the government should increase police salary and police officers should be adequately compensated for protecting the lives and property of citizens.
SARS has since been disbanded by Mohammed Adamu, the inspector-general of police (IGP), and judicial panels of inquiry have been established in different states to investigate cases of police brutality.
