Although Lagos quickly became the epicentre of the October 2020 #EndSARS protest, it started in Ughelli town, Delta State, when angry young people pursued police officers fleeing in a white SUV belonging to a man they allegedly shot and left to die by the road. “We dey follow them o!” One of the men chasing the officers screamed. The SUV ran left and right, outpacing other vehicles on the highway.

It was October 3, 17 days before Nigerian troops opened fire on hundreds of peaceful #EndSARS demonstrators at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos. Exactly one year earlier, men of the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had stopped Idonreyin Obong, an Android engineer at Paystack, while returning from work around 11 pm. Seeing a Macbook and an iPhone in his car, they called him an internet fraudster and ordered him on their bus. If he did not pay N800,000, the officers alerted Obong, they would shoot him.

Kolade Johnson, a budding music producer, did not have the same chance as Obong whom SARS officers dropped somewhere after collecting N100,000. In March 2020, Kolade’s friend was ordered to hop on a yellow bus, and an officer later identified as Olalekan Ogunyemi asked a crowd of observers if they wanted to die, according to an eyewitness. Next, he pointed a gun at Kolade and fired twice. One shot struck him in the abdomen and another close to his private area.

By that time, SARS had gained notoriety for extorting, brutalising and murdering young (and sometimes innocent) Nigerians. Just as they were marching those with piercings, tattoo and dreadlocks into their cells in Lagos, they were picking young people from their homes elsewhere and building roadblocks for anyone they thought was a ‘Yahoo Boy’; only the lucky ones ever returned. Someone close to Lagos SARS command told FIJ that they slaughtered many who could not afford bail and sold their body parts to big men finding ingredients for rituals.

Amnesty International later revealed that there had been at least 82 instances of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial execution by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020. So, when Chinyelugo, who describes himself as an unapologetic Igbo, tweeted at 4:19 pm on October 3 that SARS had just shot a young man dead and drove away in his “Jeep”, no one gave the infamous police unit the benefit of the doubt.

SARS just shot a young boy dead at Ughelli, Delta state as we speak. In front of Wetland hotels. They left him for dead on the road side and drove away with the deceased Lexus jeep.

I have videos…

— Chinyelugo (@AfricaOfficial2) October 3, 2020

Government’s claim the following day that the victim was alive and that the perpetrators were not SARS agents but men from Operation Delta Safe could not put out the fire that had started to burn on social media. These Nigerians had just come out of the Black Lives Matter protest that shook the world after a white American policeman knelt on black George Floyd’s neck till he died in June.

These Nigerian protesters, though they did not witness the popular ‘Ali Must Go’ demonstration of 1978 against the then Federal Education Commissioner for raising the cost of student meal tickets from N1.50 to N2.00 or the protest of June 12 against the military regime of Sani Abacha, had just seen America subdued by thousands of people seeking justice for Floyd.

However, only a few thought the protest could spread to the streets from Twitter, where #EndSARS had been active for a year and was now topping the trends list until Naira Marley, a popular Nigerian singer, announced a peaceful demonstration to be held in Lagos the following day. “No vandalism. No fight and no stealing,” the singer stressed. But the Nigerian government would have him cancel the protest.

Among several commenters under the singer’s Monday, October 5 tweet was Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports, urging the “youth not to embark on any protest”. The next day at 9:02 am, Naira Marley announced the suspension of the physical demonstration, quoting a tweet by the Nigeria Police that the Inspector-General (IGP) had restricted SARS. The singer had also been invited to a live Instagram chat with Frank Mba, the police spokesperson.

Some social media users felt he was right in cancelling a protest following promises of reforms from the authorities, but several others felt he only deflated. “Naira can chicken out for all I care, a Twitter user, Molebi of Lagos, said. “I know it’s a time bomb and even if we don’t protest now, another opportunity will show up”.

By now, #EndSARS protest had begun in Benin, Edo State capital. In a video clip posted on social media, an iTV reporter covering the protest said the “large number of youths and their long convoy of vehicles made the situation uncontrollable” along airport road.

While Naira Marley’s u-turn stalled physical protest in Lagos on Tuesday, #EndSARS continued to gain momentum on Twitter, as influencers like Rinu Oduala galvanised Nigerians. Real energy, according to BBC Nduka Orinjimo, was injected when Rinu, with more than 30,000 followers on Twitter, called for a demonstration outside the Lagos government house on Wednesday. The next morning, singers Falz and Runtown picked up the slack. Joined by Tiwa Savage, Rudeboy, Bolanle Ninalowo, PocoLee and other celebrities, they led Lagos’ first #EndSARS protest in Lekki.

Rinu’s protest also took off with about 23 young people at the Lagos State House of Assembly in the evening. All the while, Delta youths were protesting. “Just heard that another youth got shot in Delta,” comedian Debo Macaroni tweeted while announcing his interest in the Alausa all-night protest. “We are sleeping in front of the government house. Someone must take responsibility!”

On Friday morning, Macaroni tweeted again, sharing a photo of 23 people who stayed the ‘cold’ night one of them later said she thought would be her last. Heavily armed police officers had stormed Alausa during the night and ordered the protesters to lie down, holding guns to their faces. “The heroes!” Macaroni wrote. “Some of them you might or might not even know. But they have stayed up all night to send a message to the world.”

Soon, influencers started shaming big brands and celebrities who had not spoken up yet. “Excuse me @DStvNg@DStv,” Dipo Awojide wrote on Friday. “There is a nationwide protest going on against police and SARS brutality, and their primary targets are young (and) innocent Nigerians who happen to make up a high part of your viewers. Don’t you think adding your voice to it will make sense?”

Awojide also asked John Boyega, a Nigerian-born English actor, to support the Nigerian youth like he did during the Black Lives Matter movement few months earlier. And the latter tweeted #EndSARS before noon. Davido tweeted shortly after, and Wizkid at 1.58 pm, all on Friday. So by evening, #EndSARS was trending worldwide. From Twitter, the protest soon returned to the streets, this time, spreading to several Nigerian states like a wild fire. The rest, as they say, is history.