EndSARS: Protesters In New York Demand Transparency In SARS Disbandment

Hundreds of young anti-SARS protesters on Sunday stormed the Nigeria House in New York demanding transparency in the disbandment of the police unit back home.

Among them was Stephen “Papi” Ojo, the artist, model and choreographer who stole the show as the ‘blue-guy’ in Beyoncé’s “Already” music

The protest started shortly after the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS),

Adamu also announced plans for a new arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps following the disbandment, and the constitution of an investigative team to probe the alleged cases of rights violations, among others.

But the protesters, who bore placards with different inscriptions including, “We no want audio ban”, said they were not buying it.

They argued that previous commitments announced by the force to change the behaviour of SARS operatives and other personnel had no effect.

“We are not buying that because they told us in 2017 that SARS had been banned from a lot of things, but they continued,” said Miss Omobolanle Adams, of the protest organisers.

“We don’t want back-door politics, we don’t want back-door negotiations.

“We want President Muhammadu Buhari to speak directly to us. We want justice for people that were murdered, raped and assaulted.

“We want the SARS operatives responsible brought to book and at the end of the day, we don’t want them redeployed to other units. We want them gone,” she said.

In a series of tweets on Friday, the president assured Nigerians of his determination to end police brutality and bring “erring personnel to justice”.

Buhari said his administration’s “determination to reform the police should never be in doubt”, and sued for calm.