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Amnesty International accused the Nigerian government on Thursday of attempting to cover up the killing of a dozen citizens during peaceful protests in Lagos last October.
Youth-led demonstrations in Nigeria began against police abuse, quickly spiralling into broader calls for reform.
But they ended weeks later when security forces shot at demonstrators in Lagos – killing at least 12 people, according to the rights group.
At a judicial panel, the army denied using live rounds but the government promised to disband the much-hated police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which had been the main target of protests over brutality.
“Nigerian authorities have failed to bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for the brutal crackdown by security forces on peaceful #EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate and Alausa in Lagos in October 2020 and have brazenly attempted to cover up the violence,” Amnesty said.
“Since the assault by security forces, which killed at least 12 people, Nigerian authorities have targeted supporters of the protests against police brutality by the disbanded SARS,” Amnesty’s country director Osai Ojigho said in the statement, released to mark 100 days since the shootings.
She said some of the movement’s supporters have had their bank accounts frozen.
The London-based rights body challenged the Nigerian government to suspend accused officials, pending investigations, and to ensure victims access to justice.
In November, the Lagos State government set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the bloodshed and wider allegations of abuses by SARS featuring testimony by the army that presented videos to back its claims.
The government has promised a string of reforms in response to the protests, and disbanded SARS, replacing it with Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) forces.
Nigeria, where the median age is 18, is a tinderbox of deep economic and social grievances, and the demonstrations snowballed from anger over police violence to broader demands.
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the country’s top military commanders after months of pressure over his response to the worsening security situation in the country.
Leo Irabor was named to the powerful Chief of Defence Staff post, which oversees the main military branches, the spokesman for the presidency said, while I Attahiru, A Z Gambo and I O Amao would command the army, navy and air force respectively.
“President Buhari thanks the outgoing service chiefs for what he calls their ‘overwhelming achievements in our efforts at bringing enduring peace to our dear country’,” the presidency spokesman said, telling Reuters news agency that some of the chiefs had resigned while others retired.
The statement did not give any reasons for the overhaul of the country’s top-ranked commanders.
Buhari, a former army general first elected in 2015, came to power promising to tackle Nigeria’s security problems.
Since 2009, at least 36,000 people have been killed in armed conflicts in Nigeria and violence has spread into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition.
Diverse security issues
Hopes were high after initial successes pushing back the armed Boko Haram group in 2015 and 2016, but with the rise of ISIL’s (ISIS) West African branch, formerly part of Boko Haram, the military ceded many of its gains.
Now, swaths of the northeast of Africa’s most populous country and biggest oil producer are out of government control, with soldiers hunkered down in defensive positions and regularly attacked by fighters while on patrol.
Armed gangs have surged through Nigeria’s northwest and kidnappers patrol many of the country’s roads.
In the Gulf of Guinea, where Nigeria’s offshore oil wealth is concentrated, piracy is on the rise.
The country is also struggling with a widening conflict over land and resources between mainly Christian farmers and nomadic mostly Muslim herders in which thousands have died over the past years.
Gunmen abducted eight children and two adults from an orphanage in Nigeria's federal capital, Abuja, a spokesman for the orphanage told CNN.
The kidnappers have threatened to "waste" the children if the board fails to pay a ransom of 10 million naira (US$26,230), said board member Alaje Odewu.
They broke into the orphanage, which housed 17 minors, early Saturday.
"(They were) wielding their rifles at the kids, they selected the older ones and took them away along with their matron who was carrying a less than 1-year-old baby and another adult worker," said Odewu.
The matron was subsequently released along with the baby and another girl.
When the abductors called to demand the ransom, they insulted the board for not paying immediately. The orphanage told the abductors it does not have the money and is asking for people to pray for the safe return of the children.
"They told me they knew that the kids were orphans," he said. "I feel so sad that because these are just little innocent kids; the oldest among them is just 16 years old and most of the others are between the ages of 5 and 6,'' said Odewu.
The culprits have not yet been identified, but the police are on their trail, he said, adding that kidnappings like this one are "not new in the community."
Hundreds of students were abducted in December by gunmen in Katsina State in northwestern Nigeria. They were missing for nearly a week before the Nigerian military rescued them from bandits masquerading as the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram.
While kidnapping for ransom by criminal elements in Katsina State have seen a disturbing increase, an abduction on this scale has not been reported previously. It recalls the kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok in 2014. More than 100 of those girls never returned home.
By Isaac Abrak
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Nigeria recorded four cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant B117, first reported in Britain, while still expecting vaccines against the virus, the Nigerian government said on Monday.
Three cases were found in Nigerians who had traveled out of the country and one is a resident, said Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, at a daily news conference.
Mustapha said that over the last few weeks, the PTF had been closely following the rising number of infections reported daily in Nigeria while scientists were sequencing the variants of the virus.
"When they were tested, this strain was found in them within a week of returning to Nigeria. This was reported to us through the international health regulations and it is most unlikely this strain was acquired in Nigeria," said Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), while shedding more light on the new development at the same news conference on Monday.
Ihekweazu said his agency would keep intensifying genomics surveillance and sequencing in collaboration with its partners, as shutting down international travel would not achieve much so long as the virus was still ravaging in other countries.
Meanwhile, 1,430 new COVID-19 cases were reported late Monday, bringing the total number of infections in the most populous African country to 122,996, according to the NCDC.
The new infections were reported from 18 states, including Lagos, the economic hub, and Abuja, the federal capital territory.
Three additional deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 1,507 nationwide since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in the country on Feb. 27, 2020.
Nigeria has so far tested 1,270,523 people since the onset of the pandemic, the PTF said.
"The management of cases is gradually improving with the availability of medical oxygen. The government is also fast-tracking the rehabilitation of existing plants and construction of new ones as approved by the president," Mustapha told reporters, adding there is currently a review of the guidelines on the implementation of phase three of the eased lockdown which expired on Monday.
Nigeria is expected to receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines early next month, with the efforts to deploy them underway, the official said.
"We wish to assure all Nigerians that the vaccines will be safe and effective when eventually it is deployed. We enjoin everyone to join in the campaign to eliminate vaccine hesitancy," he said.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said at the news conference on Monday the government is exploring all options to ensure the vaccination of 70 percent of the Nigerian population within two years.
"With an eye on value-for-money, we are negotiating with many parties and planning for flawless execution using recent experience from polio eradication in the face of a global scramble for vaccines," Ehanire added.
By Olatunji Saliu
