UK based Nigerians descended on central London on Saturday, calling for an end to police brutality in Nigeria.
The protesters- about 1000 of them- began at Parliament Square in the morning, and marched to Downing Street to hand in a petition to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Another group, led by notable Black Lives Matter figure, Sasha Johnson, marched towards Buckingham Palace, calling for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign.
The protesters then rallied outside a house suspected to belong to ruling party stalwart and former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu.
Chanting ‘thief!” and waving #EndSARS placards, the demonstrators took a knee outside the house and called for justice for victims of police brutality in Nigeria.
There have been almost two weeks of anti-police brutality protests across the UK calling for justice in Nigeria. London saw its biggest #EndSARS protests on Wednesday, a day after unarmed, peaceful protesters were shot by soldiers in Lagos.
“We’re here because we need justice for the killing of innocent souls that were protesting at Lekki gate. It’s not fair the way the government are treating the people, so we need justice,” a protester told ARISE News.
“We can protest here because no one will kill us,” another said.
The shooting in Lagos drew widespread international condemnation, with UN, British and American officials leading calls for a thorough investigation into the incident.
Nigerians in the UK called on the Western world to intervene directly.
“I’d like the international world to step in,” a protester said. “We’ve seen the international world go into countries and intervene in less situations than the trouble in Nigeria right now. The Western world, including the United Kingdom, saddens me that they all watch.”
Nigerians around the world have been rallying around the #EndSARS movement since protests began in Lagos earlier this month. Street protests in the city have all but fizzled out since the shootings at lekki toll gate, but Nigerians in the diaspora say they will continue with demonstrations.
“With all these protests going on in the UK, the government should listen. It’s not only in the UK, this protest is global.
“Buhari will listen to us if we continue what we’re doing. As long as we keep pushing, they will listen to us.”
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