Security Expert and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Africa Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (ACSIS), Mr Paul Coonley Boateng has said that Ghana should tread cautiously on the back of the current happenings in Nigeria.
According to him, Ghana might suffer a similar fate.
Tensions have escalated across the oil-rich West African nation in recent days as violence has flared across several cities across southern and central states in Nigeria. Armed groups—which demonstrators say were government agitators, a charge the government and its allies has denied—have clashed with protesters, the property has been vandalized and in the southwestern Edo state, dozens of prisoners were freed in a jailbreak, prompting the state government to impose a curfew.
Speaking on the Happy Morning Show (HMS) the security Capo said: “We must be careful happenings in Nigeria don’t replicate itself in Ghana, it is said that the security forces in Ghana are worse off than the Nigerians, so we can imagine what will happen in Ghana.”
He also warned the Nigerian government that the actions of the military, under the supposed direction of the Presidency can possibly lead to a military takeover in the oil-rich country. “If President Buhari decides to use brute force, the military will intervene and take over.”
For two weeks, Nigeria has been rocked by protests that erupted against police violence and evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations, leading to a deadly crackdown.
Young people mobilising through social media began staging demonstrations calling for the abolition of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which has long been accused of unlawful arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.
What is SARS?
SARS was a special police unit set up decades ago as Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, battled rising levels of crime and kidnappings.
Initially, it was successful in reducing cases of violent crime but more recently the unit had been “turned into banditry”, according to Fulani Kwajafa, the man who set up SARS.
In June 2020, Amnesty International released a report that documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial execution by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020.
What triggered the protests?
The protests were sparked by a viral video allegedly showing SARS officers killing a young man in the southern Delta state. Authorities denied the video was real.
The man who filmed the video was arrested, provoking even more anger.