Many protesters who participated in last year’s #EndSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria are still languishing in prisons accross the country, FIJ can report.

Of the lot, FIJ has obtained the names of 18 who are currently detained at the Kirikiri Prison, with there the understanding that many more whose names were not obtained are still right there in Apapa.

The names of the 18, who were picked up from different locations in Lagos during and after the October 2020 protests, are:

Mbah and Chimezie Only Participated in #EndSARS Protests. They’ve Been in Kirikiri Since October — for Armed Robbery!

Many of them were imprisoned on trumped-up charges. For instance, as earlier reported by FIJ, Nicholas Mbah, an up-and-coming artiste, and  Ugwumba Chimezie, a tricycle rider, were accused of conspiring with others to commit felony and were “charged with armed robbery, arson and rioting”. And when it was time to release one of them, court officials bizarrely claimed they couldn’t read the magistrate’s handwriting on the release order

Magistrate’s ‘Illegible Handwriting’ Delaying Release of Two #EndSARS Protesters from Kirikiri

Those among the protesters who gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos were shot at and killed by soldiers drafted from a nearby cantonment.