one year after the movement against police violence, “nothing has really changed”

Monsurat Ojuade had just turned 18 when a police officer shot her dead ” without any reason “ during an intervention of the security forces in his district of Lagos, tells his big sister, Omolara Ojuade, the voice still trembling. His death on September 11 has caused a lot of talk in recent weeks in Nigeria, as the country prepares to commemorate the #EndSARS movement against police violence, which rocked major cities in the south of the country and was bloodily suppressed. in October 2020.

The death of Monsurat Ojuade illustrates the persistence of this violence in the most populous country in Africa. It is also an observation of failure for Nigerian youth, whose massive and historic mobilization was not enough to thoroughly reform an institution plagued by corruption and impunity.

“It was a Friday evening, we were closing our shop when we saw young people running, explains Omolara Ojuade, reached on the phone by AFP. Panicked, we rushed to our house, and that’s when a policeman fired. “ If the officer has since been removed from the police and faces a trial for “murder”, for the family of Monsurat Ojuade, impossible to stop there. “The police in Nigeria are not trained properly, otherwise how can an officer walk into someone’s house and shoot for no reason?, asks his sister. Was #EndSARS helpful? “

“Cosmetic changes”

A year later, many are asking this question among Nigerian youth. The #EndSARS (“End SARS”) movement had initially started to denounce the brutalities and abuses of the SARS, a special police unit accused for years of extorting the population, illegal arrests, torture and even of murders. Faced with popular pressure, the authorities had dismantled the unit and promised to reform the police, but the youth, unconvinced by the government’s promises, continued their protest, very quickly repressed.

“A year later, nothing has really changed. There have only been cosmetic changes in the fontAmnesty International researcher Damian Ugwu told AFP. Extortion, ill-treatment and extrajudicial killings are all still present within the police force. “ There have indeed been a few trainings, but no deep reform. The army and the police remain underfunded and the remuneration of their agents is still too low.

At the Lagos crossroads, police checks resumed and, with them, “Racketeering by corrupt agents”, denounces Femi, taxi driver: “You always have to give them a ticket. And if you refuse, they create problems for you. “ Outside the economic capital, at some police checkpoints, agents, who do not always wear uniform, do not hesitate to use clubs or even whips to threaten motorists, noted an AFP journalist. . Just after the movement, the police “Were afraid to go back to the streets”, but for a few months “They are back and the abuse has started again”, says Rinu Oduala, one of the figures of #EndSARS.

The 22-year-old – followed by more than 300,000 users on Twitter – in September launched Connect Hub, an NGO that aims to document cases of police violence “To show the world what we are fighting for”. “In the space of a month, more than 100 cases were reported to us, ranging from complaints of extortion to rape or even murder”, says the young woman. Neither the government nor the police reacted to AFP’s requests on this subject.

“It is God who will end up punishing them”

If the violence persists, it is mainly because “The main problem, impunity, has not been raised”, points out Damian Ugwu of Amnesty International. Since a year, “Only a small number of police officers have been prosecuted”, adds the researcher. And as a snub to the movement, those responsible for the killing at the Lekki tollgate, the emblematic site of the protests in Lagos, where the army had fired live ammunition on October 20, 2020 at demonstrators, have still not been brought to justice.

On the night that marked the end of the protests, Legend Agboola Onileowo “Will never be able to forget it”. The 29-year-old was at the toll booth “When the army arrived and shot at a crowd waving flags”. According to Amnesty International, at least ten protesters were killed there. Legend Agboola Onileowo says he saw with his own eyes at least four dead and five or six gunshot wounds.

But a year later, when the judicial panel in charge of investigating this killing has still not published its conclusions and the army officials, summoned several times, were made pale, the young man “No longer expects anything from the government”. “It is God who will end up punishing those responsible”, he says, annoyed.