Nigeria: Central Bank freezes accounts of figures of #EndSars movement
In Lagos, a peaceful chain of young demonstrators in front of an official building in protest against police violence.
(illustrative image) REUTERS / Temilade Adelaja
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
After the bloody crackdown on the Nigerian youth protest movement by the military, authorities are keeping pressure on some identified figures of the #EndSars movement.
The bank accounts of twenty of them were frozen, by decision of the Nigerian Central Bank.
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With our correspondent in Lagos
,
Liza Fabbian
The #EndSars movement has always claimed to be leaderless, but the Nigerian authorities appear to have identified some of its
alleged
“
promoters
”.
They are under increasing pressure, almost three weeks after the intervention of the army which plunged
the peaceful
Nigerian youth movement into violence.
In Lagos, the judicial commission responsible for investigating these events was unable to sit this Saturday, in the absence of the two youth representatives.
Majekodunmi Temitope and Rinu Oduala have decided to boycott this hearing, following the freezing of the latter's bank account.
A decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria, validated by a court of law, which targets around twenty young people mobilized in the #EndSars movement in recent weeks.
One of the lawyers for victims of police violence considered that these sanctions were "
a declaration of war on the part of the authorities
", which could undermine the work of the commission of inquiry and further undermine transparency efforts.
This weekend, the commission was to hear a representative of the Nigerian army, who came to explain the role of the army
in the violence of recent weeks
.
He did not speak, since the meeting was adjourned.
Violence in recent weeks has left at least 50 dead across Nigeria.
An army intervention against the youth on October 20 left at least 12 dead in Lagos according to Amnesty International.
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