End Sars (End Special Anti-Robbery Squad) is a social movement erupting across Nigeria, calling on the government to ban the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) division of the Nigerian Police Force, a division that has become synonymous with police brutality and oppression. The movement gained traction on Twitter in response to weeks of demands for reform over claims of harassment, murder, extortion, and kidnapping by SARS, leading to nationwide protests using the hashtag #ENDSARS to rally support for the disbandment of SARS. In addition to these protests, the international community has staged solidarity protests and has recognized the broader international movement against police brutality and oppression.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was created in 1992 as a unit of the Nigerian Police Force to address crimes associated with firearms, kidnapping, and robbery. The unit was originally formed in response to events that occurred in September 1992 when a colonel of the Nigerian Army was killed by police officers. As the Nigerian military searched for the officers responsible for the colonel’s murder, the Nigerian policy withdrew from security areas and checkpoints while many others resigned and fled. SARS was formed in response to elevated crime rates following the absence of police for two weeks. SARS was produced as a division of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID)- along with fourteen other units- which was headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police. SARS officers essentially operated facelessly, which had been a point of pride for the former police commissioner, claiming “we operated in plain clothes and used plain vehicles that could not be associated with security or any governmental agency.” This facelessness, critics have asserted, allowed SARS to operate as a tool of oppression in acting recklessly and without cause or accountability.
Since its inception during military rule in Nigeria, the unit has been accused of countless human rights abuses including extortion, torture, murder, hanging, blackmail, framing, kidnapping, organ trade, armed robbery, sexual violence, and child arrests. Amnesty International claimed it has documented 82 cases of police brutality between January 2017 and May 2020 in Nigeria, which often took the form of “hanging, mock execution, beating, punching and kicking, burning with cigarettes, and waterboarding” amongst other violent actions.
Despite several disbanding and reform attempts between 2017 and 2020, including a 2017 End SARS Campaign, and acting-President Yemi Osinbajo’s attempt to reform SARS, the unit was upheld through the IGP’s superficial asserted reforms. The recent protests in October 2020 erupted in response to a SARS officer shooting a young Nigerian man in Ughelli, Delta State. Peaceful End SARS protests in Abuja were met with a violent response from Nigerian federal police officers. During the protests, police in Nigeria engaged violently with peaceful protestors, killing and injuring several individuals as they fired live ammunition and tear gas into crowds. Present statistics hold that eight individuals, including a boy of ten years of age, were killed in the Oyo State by police, while at least three individuals were shot dead in Lagos.
In response to the mass protests and the rallying of the international community, Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police announced on October 11th that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad would be disbanded and dissolved. The police statement stated that “IGP M.A Adamu…has today, [ October 11th, 2020], dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) across the 36 State Police Commands and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).” Police spokesman, Frank Mba, added that all officers of SARS were being redeployed effective immediately following the announcement of the Inspector General of Police.
However, despite the announcement and the victory accrued by the protestors, there was mass recognition that the movement was far from over. The Deputy Inspector General of Police claimed that a new unit termed the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) would step in to replace SARS. Within hours of the General’s announcements, demonstrations persisted as fears were raised that the replacement of SARS would prevent police reform from effectively materializing. In response to the persistence of protestors, the Nigerian military has warned protestors against “subversive elements and troublemakers”, asserting that the army would seek to “maintain law and order, and deal with any situation decisively”. Authorities in the country’s capital, Abuja, have further called for an end to the protests, asserting that the gatherings elevated the risk of spreading COVID-19. Senate President of Nigeria, Ahmed Lawan, echoed the call to end demonstrations across the country, stating that “since the protests have taken place, and the issues have been accepted, the time has come for the protests to stop because the government needs to have sufficient time, a clement environment to implement the demands of the protestors.”
Protestors involved in the demonstrations have asserted that police rebranding has neither addressed the brutality nor held the officers to account for their engagement in a series of human rights violations. Amnesty International Country Director, Osai Ojigho, has staunchly opposed SWAT stepping in to replace SARS, asserting that the government must acknowledge the notorious actions of the units while summoning the officers to face a panel before true change could be realized.
Demonstrators have further sought to seize this moment of mass disruption to seek to implement real change in Nigeria, calling for reform for mass youth unemployment, an appropriate response to wide-scale poverty, greater freedom of expression, and better representation in politics. In consideration of these demands, protests are likely to continue, as stated by Osai Ofigho “Nigerians are skeptical of the authorities pledge to end police atrocities because the past claims of reforming SARS have turned out to be empty words…this may just be the beginning, rather than the end, of massive protests in Nigeria.”