Human Rights Abuse: An Assessment of the End-SARS Protests in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria had witnessed too many protests right from the pre-colonial to the colonial era, the military regimes and presently, democratic dispensations. End-SARS protest is one of the numerous protests, highlighting gross human rights violations, bad governance, and the persistence of police’s excessive abuse of powers. However, this study adopted the survey research design method that is deemed most appropriate due to the large population. Although, it was difficult to study the entire population, but a representative sample was drawn to generalize the population under study. The population projection of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is 419,007 (NPC Trial Census, 2022). The population of the study comprises of individuals and institutions who were directly or indirectly affected by police’s excessive use of force in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Probability and non-probability sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. A structured questionnaire was used to administered questionnaire to three hundred and eighty-four (384) respondents in the study area, and out of this number, only two hundred and fifty-nine (259) questionnaire were retrieved. In the process of sorting and cleaning the questionnaire, only one-hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were properly filled by the respondents. The statistical method used for the analysis was the Chi-square (X2) at 0.05 levels of significance, and with a degree of freedom of 4. The findings have shown that there is a significant relationship between unlawful detention and extrajudicial killings of citizens by the Nigeria police.