Nigeria's president vows to prevent repeat of anti-police brutality protests

By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Nigeria's president will do what
it takes to prevent a repeat of demonstrations against police
brutality last month that led to unrest in which dozens of
protesters and police were killed and more than 200 buildings
torched, the police minister said.
Protests against an elite police force, the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, led last month to the worst civil
unrest in Nigeria since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
Thousands of Nigerians took to the streets under the slogan
"ENDSars" to protest against the force, which the demonstrators
blame for killings, torture and extortion.
Though the protests were initially peaceful, demonstrators
in an upmarket Lagos district were shot at on Oct. 20 by men
witnesses said were soldiers. Rights group Amnesty international
said 12 protesters were killed. The army denied involvement.
In days of unrest that followed, police said 22 of their
personnel were killed and 205 buildings including police
stations were damaged.
"Mr President assured Nigerians that he will do whatever it
takes to ensure the repeat of 'ENDSars' protests does not occur
in Nigeria again," Police Minister Muhammad Dingyadi told
reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of security officials and
President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital, Abuja.
"What we are saying is that government will continue to
dialogue, it will continue to listen and will continue to carry
all stakeholders along in ensuring that there is no repeat of
what happened that destroyed a lot of properties," Dingyadi said
when asked for more details on Buhari's comments.
Buhari, a military ruler in the 1980s before being elected
president in 2015, has previously said that his administration
agreed to implement police reforms sought by protesters.
The SARS unit was officially disbanded in the wake of the
protests, but Buhari's critics say it has simply been renamed.