“peace and unity” were rumoured to be his last words. He was struggling for his life and the world was watching with hope but, he died and the Nigerian government killed him.
If there was anything this protest stood for, it was peace. In the history of Nigeria, there has never been a protest as peaceful as this. Protesters cleaned up after protests, food and water were provided, health care services were provided, funds were collated, items lost were returned. Nigerians stood with one voice regardless of religion or tribe to demand just one thing, justice.
Nigerians united to ask the government to put an end to SARS menace and police brutality and how did the government respond? with violence. They started by infiltrating protests with hoodlums, it looked like that wasn’t effective enough and so they started breaking prisons and setting prisoners free while claiming it was the handwork of protesters. Tell me, how possible is it for unarmed protesters to break a whole prison. What did they use? their teeth? where was the police while they were doing this? Till now, no comprehensive statement has been released with the names and numbers of the “prisoners” that escaped.
As if that was not disgusting enough, they proceeded to burn down police stations, set certain locations on fire, and then by 11:40 am of 20th October 2020 in the disguise of calming down the unrest, the same unrest they caused the governor of Lagos state declared a curfew. Now, many things were wrong with this declared curfew as people were stuck on the road and there was no way those people were getting home before 4 pm. People cried out on the internet and begged Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state to reverse this as it was simply looking like a death trap for all appeals fell on deaf ears.
Two men were caught on camera disconnecting CCTV cameras at Lekki tollgate by late afternoon claiming the government sent them and that was when people started suspecting foul play. As evening set in, armoured tanks approached the protest ground, lights were turned off and the Nigerian military in their full regalia shot at innocent citizens sitting down, holding the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem. Nothing compares to this. No cruelty comes close. They shot from both sides, trapping people in. People, not animals. People with families, people with dreams, people that they were supposed to protect.
20-10-20, the day the land turned from Green to Red. The Nigerian government shot citizens for daring to challenge them, for daring to ask for their rights. 20-10-20 the world watched as the blood of Nigerian citizens stained the flags they held. Ambulances sent were prevented by the Military from getting to them. All through the night, the Nigerian military shot at innocent protesters yet! for years Nigeria has been battling with the Boko-haram menace. If this was the way the Military responded to Boko Haram it would have long become a thing of the past.
There is evidence everywhere and yet the government claimed that no lives were lost, that this act was not from them. The whole world saw the massacre that took place yet the government claimed there was none only to show up the next morning at hospitals for photo ops. History would never be kind to them even as the blood of the innocent cry for justice.