Mohammed said this when he appeared on a Radio Nigeria call-in programme in Abuja today June 14.

“If you ask people to donate money via bitcoins for EndSARS protesters then you are vicariously liable for whatever is the outcome of the protests,” Mohammed said.

The Minister listed some of the losses incurred by the country saying “We have forgotten that EndSARS led to the loss of lives, including 37 policemen, six soldiers, 57 civilians while property worth billions of naira were destroyed.

“164 police vehicles and 134 police stations were razed to the ground, 265 private corporate organisation were looted while 243 public property were looted.

81 warehouses were looted while over 200 brand new buses bought by Lagos State Government were burnt to ashes’’ he said

The minister said it was unfair to conclude that the operation of Twitter was suspended indefinitely because it deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s message.

Lai Mohammed alleged that the microblogging site has consistently provided its platform to secessionist groups bent at destroying the corporate existence of Nigeria.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of banned separatist group IPOB, often used Twitter to address his followers and spread his separatist agenda.

“Twitter has become a platform of choice for a particular separatist promoter. The promoter consistently used the platform to direct his loyalists to kill Nigerian soldiers and policemen, run down INEC offices and destroy all symbols of Nigeria’s sovereignty. Every attempt to persuade Twitter to deny its platform to this separatist leader was not taken serious’’ he said

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The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this during a meeting with foreign envoys in Abuja today June 7. According to Onyeama, the micro-blogging site will be restored in Nigeria only if the platform can be used “responsibly”.

Last week, Nigeria abruptly suspended Twitter’s operations in the country after the company removed one of president Buhari’s post from its platform and subsequently suspended the President’s account for 12 hours.

Onyeama said although there is no definite timeline for when it will be restored, the micro-blogging site was suspended so as to stop it from being used as a platform for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality.

“The condition would be responsible use of the social media and that really has to be it.

We are not saying that Twitter is threatening the country or any such thing. Why we have taken this measure is to stop them to be used as platforms for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality or encouragement of criminalities” he said

At the meeting held in Abuja were the envoys of the US, UK, Canada and the European Union, all of whom had condemned the “indefinite” suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.

Onyeama told newsmen after the meeting that the meeting was called for because the Federal government takes the comments of the envoys “very seriously”, hence the decision to discuss the matter with them in the “usual friendly way.” The Minister added that the Buhari administration has to keep an eye on its “main objective and legacy” which, according to him, is the security of lives and property.

“We want to use social media for good. Differences of opinion is not a problem; everybody will not think alike.

But lives matter; Nigerian lives matter and we have to do everything we can to preserve Nigerian lives. And when we feel our goals are threatened, actions need to be taken.”he said

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”I am here to give evidence of our hospital encounter during the EndSARS protest period. We had a total number of 15 patients. We had four referrals from Vedic life Healthcare, seven referrals from Reddington hospial.

Mr Nicholas Okpe, a 43 year old man, who had gunshot injury to the chest. A chest tube was passed. Chest tubes are drains that were passed into the lungs to allow for air and blood to come out. Then he was later on transferred to LASUTH for further care.”

The doctor confirmed there were no casualties in his hospital claiming all patient were successfully treated and discharged.

The military who arrived at the scene later at night was accused of shooting at protesters, an allegation it continued to deny.The military says it only fired blank bullets.

However, an on-the-ground investigation by Amnesty International found that the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters on Oct. 20 at two locations in Lagos. The rights group says the killings took place at Alausa and Lekki, both suburbs of Lagos.

How did #endSARS started?

Nationwide protests against police brutality began on Oct. 8, after a video emerged in early October showing police officers thought to be from the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or (SARS allegedly shooting and killing a young man in Nigeria’s southern Delta State. Although Nigerian authorities denied the reports, protests erupted across the country calling to disband the unit on Twitter with #endSARS.

The #endSARS hashtag dates back to at least 2017, when it was used to share experiences of assault and violence. SARS was formed in 1984 to combat an increase in armed robbery and crime but has been widely accused of unlawful arrests and other abuses. Amnesty International reported at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extra-judicial execution between January 2017 and May 2020. Despite promises of reform, Amnesty says SARS officers still act with impunity.

What happened at Lekki tollgate on Oct. 20?

Several videos circulating on social media showed crowds gathering at the Lekki toll gate in one of the suburbs of Lagos, where #endSARS protesters have been camped for two weeks. Witnesses told the BBC that uniformed men opened fire, and soldiers were seen barricading the protest site before the shooting, and Amnesty International received reports that shortly before the shootings, CCTV cameras at the Lekki toll gate were removed by government officials and the electricity was cut in an attempt to hide evidence. Video footage showed protesters singing the national anthem in the darkness, the noise gunfire as people ran away from the scene, and protesters tending to the injured at the scene. According to Amnesty International, at least 56 people have died across the country since the protests began, with about 38 killed in one day.

The government continued to deny reports of killings at the Lekki tollgate, insisting soldiers only fired rubber bullets to disperse protests.

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Demonstrators, early Monday morning, also returned to Lekki toll gate in Lagos, the scene of the deadly shooting of protesters on October 20, 2020. What happened at Lekki Tollgate is still a topic of debate in the Nigerian media with the government insisting there were no casualties. CNN on its part claims to have evidence of casualties.

We’re serious and ready!!! Full video out soon share and retweet! #EndSARS pic.twitter.com/25mU9vezWT

— Olufemi Ae ….♈️🇳🇬 (@OlufemiAe) December 7, 2020

What is #endSARS?

Nationwide protests against police brutality began on Oct. 8, after a video emerged in early October showing police officers thought to be from the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) allegedly shooting and killing a young man in Nigeria’s southern Delta State. Although Nigerian authorities denied the reports, protests erupted across the country calling to disband the unit and #endSARS. Though they are leaderless, the demonstrations are mostly driven by young people who say they have been unfairly profiled by SARS.

On Oct. 11, the government announced the disbanding of SARS. This is the fourth time there has been an announcement of either the disbanding or reform of the force, but activists say the move does not go far enough. Protesters have five core demands, including justice for the families of victims of police brutality, retraining of SARS officers before they are redeployed to other police units, and an independent body to oversee investigations into police brutality. Protesters have also expanded their aims beyond police brutality to harness frustration at years of corruption and bad governance.

https://twitter.com/fountainKA25/status/1335864932655620097

This second round of protest appears not to be just about police brutality, but the general mishandling of the country’s affairs. Last week, Boko Haram killed 43 farmers working on a rice field in Borno. Nigerian universities have been closed down since March due to lecturers’ strikes.

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The looters are not necessarily hoodlums, as a matter of fact, most of them are ordinary every day Nigerians who are taking advantage of the breakdown in law and order.

here are a few examples of other public lootings around the world.

London riots 2011

The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London Riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as the mass deployment of police, and the deaths of five people.

Protests started in Tottenham, London, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local man who was shot dead by police on 4 August. Several violent clashes with police followed Duggan’s death, along with the destruction of police vehicles, a double-decker bus and many homes and businesses, thus rapidly gaining attention from the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale retail park and nearby Wood Green. The following days saw similar scenes in other parts of London.

Paris looting

A series of violent riots have been happening in the French capital Paris connected with The yellow vests movement or yellow jackets movement a populist, grassroots protest movement for economic justice.

American riots

Several American cities have been experiencing widespread public unrest, mostly caused by police brutality on minorities.

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Since then a lot has transpired in a series of events that would come to be known globally as the #EndSARS protests.

Here are five lessons Nigerians can take away from the events of the past few weeks.

Social Media is king

What triggered the current round of protests against SARS was a video in which members of the now-dissolved police unit were seen shooting a civilian, and later driving away in his vehicle. The video was widely circulated on social media away from the censorship that would have hindered it on government-controlled television. What followed was hundreds of people sharing their personal experiences with police brutality. Social media put a face to police violence in Nigeria, actual victims telling their stories was just a matter of time before the streets erupted in protests.

Nigerian youths are more efficient

Imagine a movement without actual leaders, only thousands of Twitter tweets and Facebook posts telling people where and when to gather. For the first two weeks, before the protests were hijacked by hoodlums food, water, and medicine were delivered nationwide to protesters with an efficiency that puts the government’s distribution of Covid-19 palliatives to shame.

Tinubu’s presidential ambition in jeopardy

The events of the past few weeks have no doubt shattered the credibility and confidence that most Nigerians have in their public servants, but one individual that seems to have emerged worse off than others is political godfather Bola Tinubu. Before the protests, there were rumors that Tinubu was already laying the groundwork of his ambition to contest the presidency in the 2023 general elections. For now, he stands accused of complacency in the shooting deaths of protesters in Lekki on October 12.

Tinubu represents a metaphor for the old guard of Nigerian politicians, most of whom will find it difficult to win popular votes moving forward.

Buhari has been a bad boy!

Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s president in 2015 after defeating the then incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan in the general elections. His campaign promises centered around social change improved security, improved economy, and less corruption. So far, Buhari has struggled to deliver significantly on these promises. The #EndSARS protests might have been triggered by police brutality, but it quickly turned into a protest for better governance with most Nigerians demanding a better standard of behavior from their president.

A popular revolution is impossible in Nigeria

For most people following the #EndSARS protests from outside Nigeria, the protests might seem like a popular uprising, but in reality, it wasn’t. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lagos, Abuja, and several other cities in Southern parts of Nigeria to demand police reform and better governance, but others in the northern parts of the country saw things differently. In fact, at some point, pro-SARS rallies were said to have held in some northern cities. Nigeria is deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines, to some people the #EndSARS protests simply deepened that divide.

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