Today marks the two years anniversary of the EndSars protest, one of the most revolutionary protests in the country’s history. Protesters, mainly youths, took to the street to express their concerns over the menace of police brutality in the nation. Unfortunately, on the night of October 20th 2022, members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos State.
Protesters of the EndSars movement highlighted a five-point demand for the federal government to address, including the release of arrested protesters, justice for victims of police brutality, prosecution of police ‘bad eggs’, retraining ex-SARS members and increase in police salary.
By the numbers
In response to the concerns of the EndSars protesters, the National Economic Council (NEC) back in 2020 directed the formation of State-based Judicial Panels of Inquiry to investigate the allegations of police brutality, extrajudicial killings and other misconduct in order to deliver justice to all the victims of the dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) and other police units.
NEC’s report summary as of September 28th 2022, almost two years after the directive was given, shows that seven states refused to set up panels, another seven have failed to submit the report, while 23 states, including the federal capital, concluded their sitting. The no panel states include Borno, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Yobe, Zamfara. And the no submitted report states are Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Enugu, Katsina, Kwara and Taraba.
The judicial state panel has also in that time recommended 4 policemen to lose their ranks, 25 police officers for dismissal, 28 police officers for prosecution and 15 policemen for disciplinary actions.
The big picture
A greater number (23 including FCT) of Nigerian state governments have concluded their sitting on the EndSars state panels as recommended by the NEC. Unfortunately, NEC’s report doesn’t outline encouraging achievements by the state governments in addressing concerns about the police force as a unit. It definitely shows a lot of work still has to be done in eradicating police misconduct and other vices.