American R’n’B singer, Alicia Keys has joined several others in calling for the release of #EndSars protesters held by the Nigerian Government
In an open letter signed by a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Opal Tometi, Alicia Keys, actress Kerry Washington, climate activist Greta Thunberg and 62 others called for the ban on peaceful demonstrations to be lifted to “allow Nigerians exercise their constitutional right to protest.
The letter asked Buhari to release jailed protesters and journalists and to return confiscated passports and government IDs and to unfreeze bank accounts.
“In the midst of a global pandemic, your people sought to bring peace and justice to their land, and they made Africa and its diaspora proud in doing so,” read the letter, which was published as an advertisement in The New York Times on Thursday to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
“Yet their peaceful requests were met with state-sanctioned violence and suppression, as your administration meted out unwarranted force against its own citizens.”
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In October, waves of “#ENDSARS” protesters took to the streets in cities and towns across Nigeria, calling for the disbandment of the country’s controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and an end to police brutality.