Human rights activist and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, Aisha Yesufu, has accused the Nigerian government of acting like a terrorist organisation during the 2020 EndSARS protest.
Yesufu made the claim on Monday during an interview on Prime Time, a programme on Arise Television as Nigerians marked the fifth anniversary of the nationwide demonstrations against police brutality.
She recalled the tragic incident at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, where security operatives allegedly opened fire on peaceful protesters, describing it as one of the darkest moments in the nation’s history.
“When a shooting was going on, a young man across me flinched as soon as those guns started going away and it’s just something that evokes such a very heartbreaking memory and that Nigeria could do such to its young ones.
“The protest didn’t die down, rather it was killed off. Guns were brought in. We saw military officers who ordinarily should be protecting Nigerians and the territorial integrity of Nigeria decided to turn their guns on citizens; Nigerian youths who were merely reciting the national anthem and also waving the Nigerian flag.
“It’s such a painful memory and like I was saying that when a police officer or any security agency said they would kill and nothing would happen, indeed on 20-10-2020, without any doubt we came to see that yes indeed, they can kill Nigerians and nothing would happen.
“It’s really so sad that the Nigerian government, like I have always said, decided to behave like a terrorist government by killing its own citizens on 20-10-2020.
“Young people owned the protest and were very organised, and the police still came out to shoot them,” she said.
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