Today is 20th Oct 2021, Something terrible happen in my country that we can never forget in our lifetime, I decided to write on this event today because, in my previous article, you can check the article here link
I wrote half details of it and I know you will like to know how it all started
How it started
I won't say in the very beginning, but rather I will tell you when it all escalated into a protest followed by a massacre.
In my country (Nigeria) Police and other security agencies popular known as SARS, SARS are police that fights crime in my country, they mostly kidnapping and heavy robbery case that involves bullets exchange, (SARS are like United States SWAT). They started harassing youths in my country (most especially male child) cause they were driving big cars and spending too much money, ones they see a young man with dreadlocks or carrying a laptop or even driving a big car, they will automatically declare him a yahoo boy (internet fraudster) both the innocent and the guilty were being harassed daily by the so called SARS, they started carrying POS (means of withdraw money without going to the ATM) to congregate money from the youths and if you don't have money to pay, they will take you to the station and declare you a certified fraudster, so many families was being affected and people was afraid to come out or even run to the SARS for protection while being chased by arm robbers, they will prefer to robbed than fall in the hands of SARS, These events continued and the governments was doing absolutely nothing about it because their children are living happily abroad, while the child of a common man suffers in the hand of the security agencies that are supposed to protect us against robbery. The situation was getting out of hand because the SARS operatives took it to the next level and both internet influencers and models were being harassed too, so many youths were gunned down by the SARS operatives for resisting to pay them money.
Then the youths started speaking up and it all started with an internet protest (mainly on Twitter) we couldn't take the harassment anymore, we planned on meeting a particular sport the first week and only a few people came out that day because the majority of us was afraid of the security agencies, planned another protest again the following week on operation #EndSARS, few people also came through while others were protesting on the internet. The turn up weren't much and people was discouraged if they should continue with the protest, so we planned another protest and to our greatest surprise, a lot of people came out to protest, the turn up was so massive and swore not to destroy properties because it's a peaceful protest, during the protest we needed money to be able to continue, people was coming to the protesting hungry and some was discouraged because of hunger, we opened a fund raiser account and people was sending in money to support the protest, both those abroad and in Nigeria, the government tried to block the account so we won't be able to withdraw the money, but we converted it into crypto currency (since it's not owned by the government) so many people were joining the protest, food and drinks was available for all that came out, there was electricity through out, celebrities came out to join the protest, artiste was performing for free to entertain the protesters so they won't get bored, so many people lives was changed for the better.
There was this lady that lost one leg to incident years back, she came out to join the protest with her one leg, grace spoke for her and we bought artificial leg worth 1k$+ (I don't remember the exact how amount) for her during the protest, the family was very happy, Jack (CEO of Twitter) took to his page to show support for the protest and he also opened a cryptocurrency fundraising account for the protest, people was sending in all BTC to support the movement.
The protest spread throughout the states in Nigeria (about 29 states out of 36 states) the government started calling on us to end the protest, they said we should send our leader and his vice to the office so they can talk things out and we told them that we don't have any leader because they wanted to bought them off with money. There's this artiste his name is Falz, he is a loyal and also a performing artist (musician), he was very active in the protest and I admire him a lot.
Governments were sending hoodlums to hijacked the protest so they will call it off, but together we stood against the hoodlums and they ran off to hide, though they destroyed so many properties, all were later taken care of by the kind-hearted people in the protest. They tried all they could but they stop the protest, they now decided to get the army to involve.
20th October 2020
In the morning that day, they went to the place we usually meet, they turned off the lights and also removed the CCTV camera at that sport, the army was roaming around like is a state of emergency, we went to the same sport with the National flag (green and white) and we were protesting, unknowing to us that the army has surrounded us and they were waiting for the perfect time to open fire, it was about 5 pm or so (I can't really remember) when we started hearing gun fire, some was shouting and praying, we try to run out but they have surrounded us, thank God there was a celebrity dj in our midst who started a live video on Instagram for others to see and be aware of what is happening the spot, people was hit by bullets that night and some couldn't make it, they opened fire for more than 3hours straight, tears was rolling down our eyes as we were seeing people being injured by bullets, "I started to pray for Superman to come and save for that night". People were praying and calling on God to save us, then they stopped shooting at us, an ambulance that was coming to treat the injured ones was sent back by the army, the army took the bodies of those that died during the gunfire and they dispose it to the mortuary. It was a massacre
The government denied the allegations and they that, those people weren't the army, they were just hoodlums in army uniform, how come hoodlums were shooting at peaceful protesters over 3 hours and there were no police or army to stop them ?.
Days later so many people were declared missing by their loved ones, these cold-hearted people didn't even bother to render an apology, instead, they declared a curfew on all 36 states, so the protest won't continue again. CNN investigated the massacre and they provided footage was taken from satellite to back it up that people were shot at the protest.
This year we tried to bring in phrase 2, but a lot of people were afraid to come out and the few that came out was arrested and beaten by the security agencies, these governments give houses and shelters to terrorist and beat up the citizens.
Closing thoughts
I know today being the 20th of October will be painful to some families for the loved ones they lost, I pray God comforts them through the years and also fight the evildoers, they no longer hide their face anymore, they are now coming out in daylight perpetrating evils.
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A massacre indeed! That was tragic especialy to the family of the fallen. May your country (,all country) be in peace through Gods grace. Stay safe as well