The Federal Government on Thursday received knocks from global activists and celebrities over the violent crackdown on peaceful #EndSARS protesters by state security agents two months ago.
In an open letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, made public in Lagos to coincide with the International Human Rights Day, 60 activists under the auspices of ‘Diaspora Rising’, condemned the government for “unwarranted force against its own unarmed citizens.”
The group also called for the release of jailed protesters, the prosecution of security operatives found culpable in Lekki Shootings and the lifting of the 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.
The founder of the group, Opal Tometi, who is also one of the co-founders of America’s Black Lives Matter movement, lamented in the letter that Nigeria’s response to the protests was “very shameful”.
Tometi noted that “Instead of showing up alongside (the people), the government went to suppress them, went to squelch the protest, and stamp it out.”