A recent finding by The PUNCH has revealed that two years after the #EndSars protest, 32 persons arrested during the incident are still in various prisons.
The #EndSARS movement is a decentralized social movement and series of mass protests in Nigeria against police brutality. The slogan demands that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police with a long history of abusing Nigerian citizens, be disbanded.
During the protest, protesters took to various locations across the Federation to air their voices against police brutality in the country.
Few days after October 20, 2020 Lekki Toll gate much debated shootings, it was gathered that protesters’ arrests began even amid judicial panels set up across states to investigate cases of police brutality, before and during the #ENDSARS uprising.
Information gathered that the Oyo State Police Command on the order of the Oyo State Government arrested nine youths on the 13 of November 2020.
They were alleged to have been involved in the #EndSARS protest, also claiming that their involvement led to the death of a police officer.
There names are Adeshina Muyiwa, Ikechuckwu Eze, Ariyo Sodiq, Ikenna Amaechi, Oyewole Olumide, Ariyo Afeez, Taoreed Abiodun, Adekunle Moruf, and Rasheed Tiamiyu.
They were accused of five offenses, including setting fire to a police station and stealing police rifles and other ammunition.
The nine of them are detained in Agodi prison in Ibadan, the state capital, and their case has been repeatedly postponed since 2020.
Also in Lagos, 23 individuals are still behind jail bars at the Kirikiri prison and also the Ikoyi prison facility.
Ismail Muftao, Sodiq Sulaimon, Yahaya Mustapha, and Faruq Abdulquadri are being tried at the ENDSARS Court 2, Yaba Magistrate Court on charges of robbery and arson after being detained between October 23 and 25, 2020.
Muftau was detained at Kirikiri Maximum Prison after being arrested at his home in Ikorodu, according to a civil society organization, the Take It Back Movement, which is offering them legal assistance. Muftau has only been taken to court three times (when the court has not been in session). He had previously appeared in court on December 17, 2020. He has only appeared in court once this year, on June 24, 2022, according to Banwo Olagookun, a TIB leader, who spoke to The PUNCH.
According to the group, Sulaimon was detained at his Ijora home. He also last appeared in court on June 24, 2022. According to the CSO, the following individuals have been moved from Kirikiri maximum security prisons to Ikoyi prisons: Jamiu Sani, Segun Adeniji, Ibrahim Adesanya, Daniel Joyibo, Dare Williams, Onuora Odih, Jeremiah Lucky, Gideon Ikwujoma, Haruna Adekunjo, Irinyemi Oluwanbe, Joshua Adeleke, Kabiru A
Another person, Sunday Okoro, was alleged to have received bail in 2021 but hadn’t complied with his onerous bail requirements. Okoro allegedly spent more than a month in the prison hospital and is still being held there in the Kirikiri maximum security facility.
