Over the past two weeks, Nigeria saw unprecedented protests that defied ruthless force and pressed the country’s president to relent by announcing the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in a televised broadcast. The squad rose to notoriety in recent years as the most violent police unit in the country with its members, including senior leaders, accused of egregious human rights violations. Protesters are however not convinced by the President’s move to close the police unit, claiming such announcements have been made before, with no actual action taken. They continue to protest in over 25 states in the country, insisting that their demands be met, which are, amongst others: prosecution of officers who have brutalized or killed citizens, compensation to the families of deceased victims of police brutality, increased compensation to police officers. In recent days, they have further demanded the resignation of the Inspector-General of Police on whose watch at least ten protesters were killed since the protests began.
While the majority of the country has been united in one voice that SARS was irredeemably bad and therefore had to go for good, a minority took a different approach. A section of youths in the northern region of the country was reported to have held “Pro-SARS” rallies where they demanded that the unit should be reformed, rather than scrapped. In some cases, some advocated directly against the #ENDSARS protests. Others insisted SARS was not their most pressing concern and piggybacked off the attention the trend was receiving online to advocate for #EndBokoHaramNow and #EndBanditryNow. Several factors – including SARS’s differing modus operandi, widespread insecurity and political manipulation – have played a role in the reluctance or even opposition of some northerners.