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#EndSARS: Martin Luther King's Daughter, Alicia Keys, Danny Glover, 57 Others Slam FG

#EndSARS: Martin Luther King's Daughter, Alicia Keys, Danny Glover, 57 Others Slam FG
Buhari

The Federal government has been slammed by several global activists and celebrities.


Celebrities and activists hit the Nigerian government on Thursday over a violent crackdown on #EndSARS peaceful protesters protesting two months ago against police brutality.


Sixty activists denounced the government for "unjustified force against its own unarmed citizens" in an open letter addressed to Nigerian President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and made public in Lagos to coincide with International Human Rights Day.


Writing under the auspices of Diaspora Rising, which calls itself an advocacy body set up to reinforce "bonds between members of the global Black family," the activists called for the release of protesters in prison, as well as the indictment of security agents responsible for the shooting of civilians in Lagos.

They also urged the government to lift a ban on public demonstrations.


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, described Nigeria’s response to the protests as “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.


Amnesty International has said security forces shot and killed at least 10 people during a protest at Lekki Toll gate, the epicenter of the demonstrations, in Lagos on October 20.


But the military has denied shooting live rounds, insisting that soldiers only fired blanks at the crowds that had gathered in defiance of a curfew.


However, 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 last month blocked the accounts of some #EndSARS campaigners while security forces have so far unlawfully detained some of the arrowheads of the protest.

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