Nigeria used to be home to some of the best boxers on the continent but in recent years the sport has taken a nosedive with the country's last Olympics medal in boxing coming in the 1996 Games. However, one young Nigerian boxer is aiming to change the narrative for the sport in Nigeria. CGTN's Deji Badmus has his story.
Protests in Nigeria against a police unit accused of human rights abuses were expected to spread to London this weekend, in a further sign of the international solidarity that has formed around the movement.
As social media posts and local TV coverage showed people take to the streets again in several towns and cities in the West African country, there were also reports on Sunday that a march was on its way from Marble Arch in the English capital to the Nigerian High Commission.
It's part of a now global campaign against a branch of Nigeria's police called the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), which has even drawn the backing of the likes of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Star Wars actor John Boyega, US rapper Kanye West, and footballers Mesut Ozil and Marcus Rashford.
So, what is SARS?
SARS was set up in 1984 to tackle a growing problem of people stealing from each other using force in Nigeria.
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Supporters say it initially succeeded, but critics say it has been linked to the deaths of people it has investigated.
Since the 1990s, rights groups like Amnesty International have documented a series of allegations involving the unit, which campaigners say have worsened in recent years.
In June, Amnesty released a report that documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill treatment and extra-judicial execution by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020.
What are the allegations?
One of SARS' alleged victims told Amnesty he was arrested in 2017 after being accused of stealing a laptop, but was then held for 40 days and tortured before he was brought before a court.
The 23-year-old, Miracle, said: "They started using all manner of items to beat me, including machetes, sticks, inflicting me with all kinds of injuries. One of the officers used an exhaust pipe to hit me on my teeth, breaking my teeth. I was left on that hanger for more than three hours."
Another, 24-year-old Sunday Bang, was allegedly held in detention in 2018 for five weeks, where he suffered bone fractures and other injuries due to torture and other ill treatment after being accused of robbery.
Many other Nigerians have been killed, according to human rights groups.
What's been happening?
Ongoing concern about SARS' activities led in 2017 to a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #EndSARS, which was successful in getting Nigeria's police chief to order an immediate re-organisation of the anti-robbery unit.
But when a video circulated online more than a week ago showing a man being beaten, apparently by police from the SARS unit, protests began in earnest.
On Friday, in Lagos, protesters blocked the road to the international airport and the main highway into the city, and protesters in the capital, Abuja, dedicated the day to Nigerians they say had been killed by SARS.
But the protests have been met with further violence, with 10 people killed and hundreds injured, according to Amnesty.
The largely peaceful protesters have been attacked by gangs armed with guns, knives, clubs, and machetes.
What else is happening?
The ongoing allegations of brutality have inspired thousands of people around the world to support those trying to improve policing in Nigeria.
The #EndSARS campaign has attracted support from Black Lives Matter activists in the US and Twitter's Dorsey, who created an emoji of a clenched fist in the colours of the Nigerian flag to allow people to support the campaign.
Since the start of the latest phase of the #EndSARS campaign, the hashtag has been tweeted thousands of times, it has been reported.
Protests have spread to other countries already with several dozen demonstrating outside the Nigerian High Commission in London earlier in the week.
What has the Nigerian government said and done?
In response to the widespread demonstrations by young Nigerians, the government said it would disband SARS, but the protesters are continuing, saying they want an end to all police brutality.
Protesters say the people who have attacked them are backed by the police, according to reports in the local press, and have vowed to continue because of this.
Nigeria's military has issued a warning against what it called "subversive elements and troublemakers," saying the army would "maintain law and order, and deal with any situation decisively".
Authorities in Abuja have called for an end to all protests in the city, saying the gatherings risk spreading COVID-19.
On Sunday, as more protests got under way, Senate president Ahmed Lawan called for an end to the protests rocking the country, local media reported.
What's going to happen now?
One protester in Abuja told AP those involved in the demonstrations are ignoring any order to disperse.
"If they are sincere, they would have banned the crowded rallies politicians have been holding," protester John Uche said.
By Philip Whiteside
Related story: Video - Nigeria protests continue even after gov't disbands police squad
The UN has condemned plans to castrate rapists and paedophiles in Nigeria and called the measures 'draconian'.
In September, the governor of Nigeria's Kaduna state signed a law saying men convicted of rape would be subjected to surgical castration - with those found guilty of raping a child under the age of 14 facing the death penalty.
The measures followed public anger over a recent increase of rapes amid Covid-19 restrictions, which prompted the nation's state governors to declare a state of emergency.
Today, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet condemned the plans, calling them 'draconian'.
'Tempting as it may be to impose draconian punishments on those who carry out such monstrous acts, we must not allow ourselves to commit further violations,' she said.
In a statement regarding the adoption of the law in Nigeria, Bachelet said the main argument made for instituting the death penalty is to deter rape. She added that the assumption that the punishment prevents sexual assaults is wrong.
She said 'the certainty of punishment, rather than its severity, deters crime'.
'Penalties like surgical castration and bilateral salpingectomy will not resolve any of the barriers to accessing justice, nor will it serve a preventive role,' Bachelet argued.
'Surgical castration and salpingectomy violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law.'
Reported cases of rape in Nigeria have risen dramatically during the months of coronavirus restrictions.
Women's groups have called for tougher action against rapists, including the death penalty.
Kaduna state's new law is the strictest against rape in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.
The state's newly amended penal code also says a person convicted of raping someone over age 14 will face life imprisonment.
The previous law carried a maximum penalty of 21 years' imprisonment for the rape of an adult and life imprisonment for the rape of a child.
A woman convicted of rape of a child under 14 faces the removal of her fallopian tubes.
Hundreds of protesters marched to the gates of Nigeria’s parliament on Thursday, hours after the army said it was ready to step in and restore order after more than a week of demonstrations against police brutality.
The protest defied a ban on mass rallies in the capital Abuja that the government said was imposed earlier on Thursday to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Chanting crowds also blocked roads and waved flags and banners in the commercial hub Lagos, where protesters reported clashing with unidentified men wielding weapons.
Video on social media appeared to show men coming out of a bus and chasing protesters, though Reuters could not verify the footage.
“We have suffered enough. We youths want to stand - no more brutality,” one demonstrator, Obinna Paul, said in another part of the city where crowds blocked a toll gate funnelling traffic to and from the main airport.
Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Twitter he condemned the attacks on peaceful protesters “by armed and unscrupulous elements trying to cause chaos”.
Lagos state set up a 200 million naira ($525,000) compensation fund for victims of police brutality, a core demand of protesters, and a presidential spokesman said on Twitter that the government had directed all governors to establish victim compensation funds. He also said judicial panels of inquiry would investigate police brutality.
Late on Wednesday, the military issued a statement titled “Nigerian Army warns subversive elements and trouble makers”.
“The NA (Nigerian Army) is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively,” it said.
Protesters have staged daily marches since Wednesday last week, calling for an overhaul of police forces.
Police had responded to the demonstrations with beatings, tear gas and gunfire, which human rights group Amnesty International said had killed at least 10 people. But the police agreed on Tuesday to stop using force against protesters.
In response to the protests, the head of Nigeria’s police force on Sunday dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit that demonstrators have accused of beatings, killings and extortion.
Demonstrators have called for more meaningful reforms. Protesters say they fear a new unit, whose creation to “fill the gaps” left by SARS was announced on Tuesday, was just a rebranding of the squad.
By Alexis Akwagyiram, Camillus Eboh
The Nigerian government's decision to abolish a police squad implicated in extrajudicial killings and torture has failed to placate protesters. A new unitcalled SWAT was formed to replace the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. But the protesters are now saying they want to hold the police and government officials accountable.
