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#EndSARS: Martin Luther King’s Daughter, Others Write FG
The progeny of legendary American activist, Martin Luther King alongside other global activists and celebrities on Thursday have berated the Nigerian government over its response to the lingering #EndSARS protests in the country.
In an open letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, and made public to coincide with International Human Rights Day, 60 activists condemned the government for “unwarranted force against its unarmed citizens.”
Writing under the aegis of Diaspora Rising, which is an advocacy body formed to strengthen “bonds among members of the global Black family”, the activists asked the government to desist from persecuting the leaders of the movement and bring an end to police brutality in the country.
The activists also urged the government to lift a ban on public demonstrations.
READ ALSO: End SARS: Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere – Martin Luther King III
As gathered by Eko Hot Blog, among the signatories were the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, Bernice King; US activist, Opal Tometi, actors Danny Glover and Kerry Washington, Swedish teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg, singer Alicia Keys, civil rights campaigner Angela Davis, US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and Nigerian-American rapper Jidenna.
Tometi, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and founder of Diaspora Rising, said Nigeria’s response to the protests has been “very shameful”.
“Instead of showing up alongside (the people), the government went to suppress them, went to squelch the protest, and stamp it out,” she said.
Recall that during the heat of the nationwide protests, the Nigerian Army, in a bid to ward off the protesters shot and killed a yet to be identified number of protesters in Lagos on October 20.
The military, however, denied using live rounds, insisting that soldiers only fired blanks in an effort to disperse the crowd.
In the wake of the protests, the Nigerian authorities have said more than 100 people, including 43 security operatives, were killed nationwide following days of street protests.
The Central Bank of Nigeria also last month froze the accounts of some #EndSARS chaperones all in a bid to clamp down against the peaceful demonstrations and punish its arrowheads.
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