Thank you very much, Chair, for the opportunity to shed a bit more light on the current situation in Nigeria.
I would like to begin by stating that on the face of it, Nigeria is very compliant with human rights. It has ratified many international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, human rights violations and abuses are prevalent. The #EndSARS protest movement arose due to widespread human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings by the police in the country.
It all started when a viral video of a man shot by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Nigeria Police Force, on October 3, 2020, in Delta State, was trending online. It elicited a lot of anger because people were just shocked by the brazen acts of SARS. While the campaign for #EndSARS was not new, it was the first time, in October 2020, that street protests were made under the banner.
Earlier in the year, in June 2020, Amnesty International Nigeria released a report, “Time to End Impunity”, in which we documented at least 82 cases of abuse by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020. The findings showed that SARS officers carried out torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as punishment on detainees, or as a tool for extracting information and for extortion. They seized money and property from suspects to enrich themselves rather than to bring criminals to book. Our research showed that young persons, especially young men between the ages of 17 and 30, were most at risk of arrest, torture or extortion by SARS. Even journalists were harassed, coerced and threatened, especially when they were covering stories or failing to disclose sources to the officials.
The Nigerian government adopted the Anti-Torture Act in 2017. This law criminalizes this torture in Nigeria. However, no SARS officer—or any police officer, for that matter—has been convicted of torture in the Nigerian court, despite the fact that torture is actually quite pervasive by security agents.
The impact of the #EndSARS protests was huge. Nearly 30 out of the 36 states had hosted at least one protest. Lagos had the most venues and the largest number of people gathering to protest against this brutal tactical unit.
On Tuesday, October 20, 2020, which we now call “Black Tuesday”, Nigeria's military forces opened fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos. There were other shootings by police in other communities in Lagos that day, leaving at least 12 people dead in Lagos. Amnesty International noted that at least 56 people had died across the country since the protests began, up until October 20. In many cases, when the security forces intervened in the protests, they had used excessive force in an attempt to control or stop the protests. There was evidence that thugs were not stopped, especially when they were trying to disrupt this protest.
It's important to stress also that there have been several panels set up by the government to resolve these issues, yet they have never followed up on the recommendations.
There have been threats against human rights defenders, activists, NGOs and Amnesty International for speaking against injustice. Recently, just on Wednesday, November 4, Amnesty International was threatened by an unknown group suspected of being sponsored by the Nigerian military. They have given Amnesty International Nigeria seven days to leave the country; otherwise, they are going to inflict violence on us and our premises.
The atmosphere of fear is distracting and preventing many human rights defenders and activists from demanding accountability. It also puts front-line advocates at risk of being attacked by non-state actors. Nigeria needs to be reminded of their international obligations to protect everyone within their territory without discrimination.
We hope our testimony today will help the committee in arriving at what sort of pressure to put on Nigeria to do the right thing.
I thank you.