Nigerians take to social media to fight against Police brutality and corruption

Police brutality and corruption has hit an all time high in Nigeria as many have taken to various social media platforms to voice out against the practice. Its so serious hashtags have been coined in support of the campaign; #EndSars is the top trending hashtags due to the illegal dealings of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).

SARS whose primary duty is to protect and curb robbery have now taken their practice to another level by harassing and assaulting young civilians who they perceive to be “Yahoo Boys” and in the case of the females “Prostitutes”.

The reports of assaults daily has now hit an all time high as social media influencers, musicians and public figures have all come out in support to #EndSars and curb the excesses of the police. This campaign has led to many revealing assaults, and sharing their personal experiences from police personnels and SARS officers.

A twitter user with the username @Asiwaju_limited shared a story of how a sum of $2,000 was extorted from him and #150,000 (One hundred and fifty thousand Naira) by the PPRO of Kwara state police command, his tweet reads;

On Friday july 7th, The PPRO of Kwara State police command took 2000$ cash from me and force me to transfer 115k to one of his boys Account, and he also seize my Samsung phone.. He threatened to send me to jail if i tell anyone about the case. @atiku@adeyanjudeji#ENDSars

Evidence of the transfer

Kwara State PPRO

Another Twitter user with the Username, @Intergrity58 shared his own story which was rather pathetic, His story reads

“In 2014, A young man in his late 30s had just gotten a visa to Canada, he called his friends for a drink at a bar, SARS busted the joint, Raided everyone there, accused them of armed robbery, took them away, locked them up. This guy explained reason for being at the bar. They followed him to his bank, made him withdraw almost 600k, money he was saving probably for his flight ticket. Yet he was not released. His wife who was pregnant at the time, who also has a 2yrs old child ran up & down to raise more money. The guy’s mother too got involved. Long story short, a week later, the mother got to SARS Ikeja and there was no record of that young man with them. She went everywhere. One of them later told her not to bother herself that the boy was wasted a night ago. He was used to replace a convicted criminal. That home remained shattered, the wife struggling to take care of two children. We are living in a dangerous jungle. Dog chop dog. #EndSARS“