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October 20, 2026
By Joseph Wilson
Six years after Nigerians took to the streets in one of the country’s largest youth-led protests against police brutality, Amnesty International says serious allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture, unlawful detention and other abuses by security forces continue to surface across Nigeria.
In a statement marking the sixth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests, Amnesty International accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately address police abuses and said victims and their families continue to face significant obstacles in obtaining justice. The organisation cited recent cases that it says demonstrate that the culture of impunity that helped trigger the 2020 demonstrations has not been eliminated.
Among the cases highlighted by Amnesty is that of Anthony Enruchi Obodo, a 22-year-old University of Port Harcourt graduate who the organisation says was shot dead by police officers on August 27, 2026. According to Amnesty’s account, Obodo was driving when police officers pursued him and opened fire before he was allegedly abandoned by the roadside.
The organisation also cited the April 26, 2026, killing of 28-year-old Mene Ogidi in Effurun, Delta State. Amnesty said Ogidi was restrained on the ground before a police officer allegedly shot him twice at close range. The allegations have contributed to renewed calls for independent investigations and prosecution where wrongdoing is established.
Amnesty International said these cases are part of a broader pattern rather than isolated incidents. It recalled earlier cases including the killing of Bolanle Raheem, a pregnant woman shot by a police officer at an Ajah checkpoint in Lagos on Christmas Day in 2022, and Onyeka Ibe, who was killed by a police officer in Delta State in April 2023 after allegedly refusing to pay a N100 bribe.
The organisation also cited the case of 17-year-old student Abdullahi Abba Tukur, who it said was tortured by security personnel in Yola, Adamawa State, in 2023 following an allegation that he had stolen a mobile phone. Other cases mentioned include Kabiru Ibrahim, who allegedly died after being beaten and tortured by police officers in Bauchi State, and Ahmed Ibrahim, a 20-year-old businessman whom Amnesty said was allegedly killed by a police officer in Kebbi State after refusing to pay a bribe.
For Amnesty International, the central issue is not simply whether individual officers have committed abuses, but whether the Nigerian justice system consistently investigates allegations, identifies responsible officers and provides meaningful remedies to victims.
The organisation said that when allegations of killings, torture and other abuses are not followed by credible investigations and sanctions, the absence of accountability can encourage further violations.
The concerns come six years after the #EndSARS movement became a defining moment in Nigeria’s modern history.
The protests began in October 2020 after years of complaints about the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, commonly known as SARS. The unit had originally been established to combat violent crime but became widely associated with allegations of unlawful arrests, extortion, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty International had documented abuses by SARS years before the 2020 protests, including allegations of torture, arbitrary detention and unlawful killings. The organisation noted that Nigerian authorities had repeatedly announced attempts to reform or disband the unit before October 2020, but many of those initiatives failed to restore public confidence.
The 2020 protests spread rapidly through Nigerian cities and were driven predominantly by young people. What began as a campaign against SARS eventually expanded into demands for police accountability, good governance, economic opportunity and respect for fundamental rights.
On October 11, 2020, the government announced the dissolution of SARS and the creation of a new Special Weapons and Tactics unit. Protesters, however, continued demonstrating, arguing that previous police reform promises had failed to produce lasting change.
The most internationally remembered moment came on October 20, 2020, when security forces opened fire during demonstrations at the Lekki Toll Gate and Alausa in Lagos.
Amnesty International has maintained that at least 12 people were killed at those protest locations on October 20, while it estimates that at least 56 people died across Nigeria during the wider #EndSARS unrest. The organisation has called for credible investigations and accountability for those responsible for unlawful killings.
The Lekki shootings remain contested politically and publicly, but a Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry later investigated the events and issued findings concerning the shootings and other abuses associated with the protests. Six years later, questions surrounding accountability remain an important part of the national debate.
The consequences of the protests have also extended beyond the events of 2020. Amnesty International has continued to document allegations of police brutality during subsequent demonstrations.
During the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, Amnesty reported that at least 24 people were killed by police across Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Borno, Niger and Kaduna states. The organisation said many victims were shot with live ammunition at close range and argued that the circumstances warranted investigations into possible extrajudicial executions. In 2025, Amnesty said no member of the security forces had been prosecuted over those deaths.
The persistence of such allegations has led Nigerian civil society organisations to question whether police reforms introduced after #EndSARS have changed everyday policing.
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, or RULAAC, said on October 20 that allegations of torture, unlawful detention, extortion, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances continue six years after the protests. The organisation argued that the problem goes beyond individual misconduct and involves institutional culture, supervision, incentives and accountability.
Nigeria has introduced legal and institutional reforms since 2020. The Police Act 2020 replaced the colonial-era 1943 Police Act and established principles including accountability, transparency, protection of human rights, professionalism and community partnership. Police complaints mechanisms and oversight structures have also been strengthened on paper.
The Nigeria Police Force has also introduced a new training curriculum intended to modernise police education and prepare officers for contemporary criminal threats, while new police regulations have been presented as a framework for improved discipline, recruitment, training and human-rights standards.
But rights advocates say legislation and regulations cannot by themselves transform policing if officers who violate those rules are rarely held accountable.
That gap between written reforms and citizens’ experiences remains one of the most difficult challenges facing Nigeria’s police reform agenda.
The issue is particularly important because Nigeria faces severe security pressures. Police officers operate in an environment affected by terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, communal violence and organised crime. Authorities frequently argue that security personnel require sufficient powers and resources to protect communities. Human-rights organisations, however, maintain that security challenges cannot justify unlawful killings, torture or arbitrary detention.
The debate therefore centres on how Nigeria can create a police service capable of confronting serious crime while also protecting the rights of the people it serves.
For many families affected by #EndSARS, that question remains personal.
In July 2026, The Guardian reported on the case of Pelumi Onifade, a 20-year-old intern journalist who disappeared while covering the protests in Lagos in October 2020. His family later found his body in a morgue, but the body disappeared before they could claim it. A DNA identification in 2026 reportedly confirmed his identity, yet his mother was still seeking the return of his remains and accountability for his death.
Cases such as Onifade’s illustrate why the anniversary of #EndSARS continues to carry emotional and political significance for Nigerians. The movement may have begun with a demand to abolish SARS, but its larger legacy is a continuing demand for institutions that protect citizens rather than expose them to abuse.
Amnesty International is now calling for credible investigations into allegations of unlawful killings, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, prosecution of security personnel found responsible, and effective remedies and reparations for victims and their families.
Six years after the demonstrations, SARS itself no longer exists. Yet the central question raised by #EndSARS remains unresolved: whether Nigeria can build a police institution in which accountability is routine rather than exceptional.
For the generation that took to the streets in 2020, the answer will not be measured primarily by new laws, training programmes or renamed police units. It will be measured by whether citizens can encounter the police without fear, whether allegations of abuse are independently investigated, and whether officers found responsible for unlawful violence are held accountable under the law.