{"id":3536,"date":"2020-10-23T15:11:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T20:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2020-10-23T16:44:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T21:44:17","slug":"stars-against-sars-celebrities-call-for-an-end-to-sars-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/stars-against-sars-celebrities-call-for-an-end-to-sars-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"STARS AGAINST SARS: Celebrities call for an end to SARS in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voices internationally demand: #EndSARS.<\/p>\n

Protests in Nigeria broadened dramatically this past month, with tens of thousands of citizens calling for the abolishment of the controversial police force, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Demonstrations over the past few weeks have urged a stop to the \u00a0corruption and lack of accountability that allows SARS to inflict brutality and unprovoked violence on the country\u2019s populous. Impacted by the ruthless treatment of protesters by Nigerian police, support has boomed internationally and compelled many celebrities to post on social media demanding for dismantlement of SARS.<\/p>\n

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Celebrities including Beyonce, Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, Chance the Rapper, Estelle, and Nicki Minaj used their social media platforms to spread awareness and offer their voices to catalyze the Nigerian government to truly #EndSARS. Idris Elba recently posted a video on Instagram, \u201c[d]rawing attention to what\u2019s happening in Lagos right now. What\u2019s happening is an atrocity, and murder. And I\u2019m calling to leaders\u2026to all African leadership to say something to the Nigerian government\u2026Please do something, say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SARS was established in 1984 to combat rampant crime and lawless activity that was ailing Nigeria at the time. Although successful at the start, the police unit transformed into a government backed criminal enterprise that Amnesty International deemed to have shown \u201can absolute disregard for international human rights laws and standards.\u201d Between January 2017 through May 2020, an Amnesty International report found at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions conducted by SARS officials.<\/p>\n

On October 12, President Muhammadu Buhari agreed to disband SARS but protests did not subside as subordinates of the President indicated that SARS officers would be redeployed to other units in the police system. This past week clashes between protesters and police turned increasingly violent given the government\u2019s lack of response to demands that SARS officers be fired and\/or prosecuted for their ruthless acts that have tormented the Nigerian people.<\/p>\n

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Local Nigerian celebrities such as Burna Boy, Davido, WizKid, Tiwa Savage and Mr. Eazi are heavily active in motivating the populous to face the Nigerian government head on. In a protest on October 10, WizKid urged the youth of Nigeria to speak out. \u201cWe are not scared to speak\u2026.Nigerian youth, don\u2019t let anyone tell you you don\u2019t have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think that protests will be successful in pushing the Nigerian government to hold ex-SARS officers accountable for their atrocious acts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voices internationally demand: #EndSARS. Protests in Nigeria broadened dramatically this past month, with tens of thousands of citizens calling for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[130,131,92,4,115,623,80],"tags":[1366,1362,70,1357,616,1367,1364,1359,1354,1363,1353,1361,1355,156,1360,641,243,1358,1365,1368,1329,1356],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3541,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions\/3541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askcarterlaw.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}