American music star, Alicia Keys has joined a group of Black Lives Matters activists and celebrities, in writing a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over #EndSARS, the movement against police brutality in Nigeria.
In the letter, Keys and the other activists urged the president to free jailed protesters, as they called for a “transparent investigation” into the killing of protesters by armed men in military uniform.
“We cannot stay silent,” they stated.
The letter read partly: “In the midst of a global pandemic, your people sought to bring peace and justice to their land, and they made Africa and its diaspora proud in doing so.
“Yet their peaceful requests were met with state-sanctioned violence and suppression, as your administration meted out unwarranted force against its own unarmed citizens.
“As people who have supported the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and throughout the diaspora, we cannot be silent when similar atrocities take place in African countries.
“We demand respect for the Nigerian people, especially as they engage in their constitutional right to protest grave injustices.”
For almost two months now, many celebrities including Wizkid and Tiwa Savage, have been vocal about the Tuesday, October 20, 2020, incident, which reportedly left many people dead and several others injured.
Recall that on Thursday, November 19, Wizkid referenced the protest against police brutality in Nigeria, during his performance at YouTube Originals’ A Day In The Live, in which he headlined.
As he melodiously sang the lyrics of the single, he tweaked it a little bit, saying “Ni Ojuelegba o, SARS burst my brother’s…”
Similarly, about a day ago, Savage referred to the Lekki tollgate shooting in her performance, singing “who gave the order?”
