+234 (0) 708 778 4788
info@eienigeria.org
October 31, 2025
Lagos, Nigeria
For Immediate Release
Press Statement
FIVE YEARS AFTER THE #ENDSARS PROTESTS, THE INJUSTICES PERSIST – CITIZENS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY AND POLICE REFORM
Five years after Nigerians took to the streets to demand an end to police brutality, the events of October 20, 2025 show that little has changed. While peacefully laying flowers at the Lekki Toll Gate in memory of those killed during the #EndSARS protests, Opeyemi Adamolekun, Executive Director of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, was harassed by security agents. Nanre Nafziger, a Nigerian in the diaspora, was the only other citizen at the toll gate.
Five years after Nigerians took to the streets to demand an end to police brutality, the events of October 20, 2025 show that little has changed. While peacefully laying flowers at the Lekki Toll Gate in memory of those killed during the #EndSARS protests, Opeyemi Adamolekun, Executive Director of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, was harassed by security agents. Nanre Nafziger, a Nigerian in the diaspora, was the only other citizen at the toll gate.
For those who vanished in the hands of SARS.
For those still languishing in jails.
For those still demanding justice.
For the ones who never came home.
For the protester whose last tweet was “Nigeria will not end me.”
For the names we know, and the ones we never will….
In October 2020, an army of angry, harmless, and hurting young Nigerians decided that enough was enough with police brutality. In massive protests and vigils across the country, they mobilised a network of mutual aid: food drives, emergency medical teams, helplines, legal support, apps to track arrests, and donations. Millions of social media posts, international protests, and expressions of global solidarity amplified this movement.
Today, some continue to work from new fronts. Some are dead. Some are in exile. Some still protest. Some have run for political office, and some won. Some have withdrawn. Some are in therapy. Some cannot sleep. Many still flinch at loud sounds. But all of us are changed. The collective heart of a generation was broken, but it does not mean it will not beat again.
You can exile people, but you cannot exile a memory. And the memory of what happened in October 2020 rewrote a generation’s relationship with power. We still believe in Nigeria’s promise. The trauma of decades of unfinished struggle is real, but we will continue to show up and speak out at the frontlines, raising people’s consciousness to believe they deserve better and can muster the courage to demand better.
Our Collective Trauma
The #EndSARS protests were met with a brutal state response: sponsored thugs and violence, frozen bank accounts, CCTV that ‘stopped working’, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) banned news coverage, disinformation campaigns, hospitals overflowing with the wounded, and the acrid smell of tear gas. Protesters were thrown in DSS dungeons, homes of donors were raided, parents begged for donations to replace their children’s amputated limbs from gunshot wounds, and citizens became enemies of the state for holding placards and demanding that the police stop killing them. So what happens when asking not to be killed extrajudicially is met with even more violence?
#EndSARS was never just about the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), but about everything they represented: lawlessness, impunity, the brutalisation and weaponisation of poverty, the criminalisation of youth, decades of violent governance, and neglected futures. It was about a generation declaring, “You will not kill us in silence” and reclaiming power in a country that had reduced its people to pawns. It was about defending the Office of the Citizen.
In response to the October 2020 protests, judicial panels were set up, citizens came forward, victims gave testimonies, and names were named. Yet, the resulting reports are buried under bureaucracy, and their recommendations now gather dust on shelves.
The Unfinished Business of the #EndSARS Protests
- Police Reform – SARS was rebranded, not dismantled. The architecture of fear remains. Torture, extortion, and arbitrary detention persist, now more discreet, more calculating. The culture of impunity has only evolved. To restore trust and institutional accountability, the Federal Government must, through the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ) and the Ministry of Police Affairs (MOPA), urgently complete the process of gazetting the revised Nigeria Police Regulations in line with the Police Act 2020. This is not merely administrative – it is a moral obligation and a constitutional necessity for genuine reform.
- Accountability for State Violence – The Lekki Massacre of October 20, 2020, was not an isolated tragedy but a devastating symbol of Nigeria’s deep-rooted governance crisis. The irony of being Nigerian is that history does not pass, but circles back. We live in a country where state violence is a tradition, not an aberration. The Tiv Valley, Asaba, Ugep, Bakolori, Maitatsine, Umuechem, Odi, Zaki Biam, Ogaminana, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Potiskum, Wudil, Baga, Zaria, Nkpor, Irewole, Oyigbo, Lekki, the list goes on. Countless anonymous checkpoints where lives have been murderously cut short, and many more. Nigeria, a state that murders its citizens, its youth, teaches us that the cost of dissent is exile, silence, death, and fewer voices speaking up. We learned that lesson. SBM Intelligence’s investigation formed the basis of a ground-breaking Premium Times report. It was later presented as evidence before the ECOWAS Court, documenting not only the harrowing details of state-sanctioned violence but also a coordinated campaign of obfuscation and intimidation. The deliberate failure to pursue justice has set a dangerous precedent, unravelling the very fabric of the state-citizen contract.
- Justice for the Victims – The report of Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry was a significant step, as it confirmed that the Nigerian Army and police were responsible for a “massacre” and an attempted cover-up. It recommended the prosecution of the soldiers and police officers responsible. However, the federal government’s subsequent rejection of the report, describing it as “fake news,” demonstrated a profound and cynical disregard for due process. This institutional gaslighting reached its peak with the Lagos State government’s submission of a White Paper that dismissed the panel’s finding, opting instead for the sanitised term “shooting incident.”The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice’s verdict in July 2024 was a monumental victory for the victims and survivors, and a damning indictment of the state’s actions. It declared the Nigerian government guilty of human rights abuses, including the “shooting of unarmed protesters,” and the “failure to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators,” ordering the government to pay compensation. However, the true measure of justice is not merely a court order but the government’s willingness to comply. To date, there has been no credible movement towards this end, underscoring the Nigerian judiciary’s inability to hold its own government to account and forcing citizens to seek redress in regional courts.
- Release of Prisoners – Till date, Dare Williams and Rasheed Wasiu remain in Kikiri. There are others in prisons scattered across the country. They have never been to trial and need to be released immediately.
In the end, the investigation into the Lekki massacre was never solely about establishing the facts of one night. It was a test of Nigeria’s commitment to the principles of justice and accountability. By failing this test so spectacularly and subsequently dismantling the community that bore witness, the government has turned a single event into a perpetual crisis.
Five years later, as the month of October ends, the unhealed wound of Lekki continues to bleed, poisoning political discourse and emboldening the forces of repression. Until individuals are held accountable, the shadow of Lekki will loom large, a stark reminder of the day the state turned on its future and the profound cost of the justice that never came.
For reference, a summarised timeline of #EndSARS events can be read here – eieng.co/endsars.
Signed By
Cheta Nwanze, Partner, SBM Intelligence
Chioma Agwuegbo, ED, TechHer – Advocate
Mojirayo Ogunlana, Legal Practitioner and Co-lawyer at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice
Nanre Nafziger – Activist, Educator, Scholar
Obianuju Iloanya – Victim’s Sister – Advocate
Kemi Okenyodo, ED Partners West Africa – Nigeria
Opeyemi Adamolekun, ED, EiE Nigeria – Advocate
Rinu Oduala – Advocate
Adam Ismail Ahmad – Active Citizen