20201104

1. “By way of a quick clarification, CALSER is not opposed to genuine, legitimate
and orderly protests against the incident of brutality and human rights abuses
irrespective of who or what the offending entity is. Our members had taken part
in the peaceful protests to demand a cessation to arbitrary profiling and abuse of
individuals by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), whose
operatives harassed Nigerians without end.
“We were surprised but gladdened when the Federal Government accepted the
original five demands without the expected stonewalling or delay tactics. We
had hoped that the 5for5 would open the way for the government to implement
the first round of reforms after which Nigerians would have again delivered the
demand for more reforms, not just in the Nigeria Police Force but in other
spheres of the national life, all of which are indeed in need of rejigging.
“Our shock was consequently profound when infiltrators took over the protests,
raise the demands to seven, 12, 20 and eventually 23 before they drafter thugs in
to attack those of us that originally began the agitation. We were shocked even
further when celebrities and paid activists not only became prominent in the
protests but also used their standing as persons with a large following on the
social media to incite people to violence.
“We still feel scammed that protesters unwittingly ended up as human pawns.
As part of the protests movement, we have reviewed the video footages shared
by colleagues at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos state. The incident at that location
Tuesday, October 20, 2020, opened our eyes to the reality that we were
manipulated to joining with people who would have willingly shot us or any
other group that has joined the protest just so they can have corpses to display.
Thankfully, things did not get to that stage before we found out that we had
been in bed with the enemy.
Advertisement
“Yes, soldiers shot into the air at Lekki Toll Gate. But, no, we did not witness
any massacre neither did we see any, not one, of the 78 people that the
protesters used social media to mislead the world into believing were killed.
The vehemence with which falsehood was peddled about the so-called massacre
is what alarmed us that our members or any other Nigerians present at that
protest location might have been killed if those behind the fake news of Lekki
massacre had the slightest inkling that they would come under scrutiny and their
misleading claims subjected to fact-checking.

2. “We do not, however, find such logic in why Amnesty International, an
international NGO, with a serial history of publishing jaundiced reports about
Nigeria, will deploy disproportionate resources to undermining the integrity of
Nigeria even at such a trying time. The protesters might have made the
misleading claim of a massacre at Lekki Toll Gate and the lie that 78 people
were killed, but it took Amnesty International’s amplification of that lie for the
international community and supra-national organizations to wrongly accuse
and condemn Nigeria and its government.
“For Nigeria to rebuild, Amnesty International must be out of the way.
CALSER, therefore, gives Amnesty International a seven-day ultimatum to
leave Nigeria. The NGO’s failure to leave Nigeria will attract civil disobedience
at its offices in Abuja and Lagos on a scale that will make the campaign of
looting and arson it facilitated appear like child’s play. Amnesty International’s
offices and those of all its affiliated organizations and known supporters in
Nigeria will be set upon the same way that its agents destroyed critical assets in
the country. Its staffers will be treated the same way that innocent policemen
lynched by mobs were treated.”