Nigerian Americans Share Their Experiences with SARS’ Brutality

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First-generation Nigerian Jessica Ikanih visits and talks to her family in Nigeria often. Conversations have become more serious. “My cousin told me this morning that four people were killed in front of her shop by SARS. Blood was everywhere,” said Ikanih. 

Nigerian American Cynthia Maduka often communicates with her family back in Nigeria also. Similarly, Maduka’s cousin was robbed by SARS. 

SARS or Special Anti-Robbery Squad is a Nigeran police force that helps prevent robbery, kidnapping and theft. Recently, the hashtag #EndSARS has been trending on twitter for the last few days because of SARS’ police brutality and abuse of power.  

Maduka said SARS was always known for being corrupt. “They mostly target yahoo boys, similar to a scammer in the United States, but they also target women.” She added, “In order for you not to get harassed, they’ll ask for payment. There’s even been stories with people being driven to the ATM and making them withdraw money.” 

Ikanih recalls a personal encounter with SARS: “I was young, and my cousin was driving, and they (SARS) stopped us with big riffles in their hands,” said the UW-Milwaukee nursing student. “My cousin gave them money and they let us go.” 

Local Activist Lazabia Jackson said, “I’m not surprised to see it happening in Nigeria because it’s just like what happened in Jamaica and here in America.” 

The similarities between the #EndSars and the #BlackLivesMatter movement are evident. Both deal with abuse of power, race, prolonged justice and systematic issues.  

“Black people are unacknowledged nation of people. That’s why we (black people) get treated just like just like the people in the third world countries,” said Jackson. 

Even though this hashtag is trending now, the movement isn’t new at all. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate Maduka said she’s been following this movement since 2017. 

“When it first hit social media, I was seeing peaceful protest led by the youth,” said Ikanih. Ikanih also said she was so proud of them and wished she could’ve marched alongside them.  

Now, social media is flooded with protest videos showing SARS’ abuse of power, victims’ testimonies and celebrities demanding justice. 

 Maduka likes the national coverage that the #endSARS movement is getting and she hopes that justice will be served and #SARS will be disbanded.  

Nigeria’s police force ended SARS and redeployed officers in early October. Maduka said that SARS was only renamed, and her family members’ environment is still the same. 

A 24-hour curfew was set in earlier September in Lagos, Nigeria.  During the curfew violence grew and dozens of protestors killed.   

Nigeran American Nigel Ogbonna said, “There’s been a lot of corrupt stuff happening in Nigeria for a long time. Nigerians are just fed up.”