Six Years After #EndSARS: Remembering the Women who held up the movement

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The #EndSARS movement was born out of years of police brutality in Nigeria, with the activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit established in 1992 to combat armed robbery and other serious crimes.

Over time, SARS became notorious for torture, extortion, arrests, unlawful detention and even killings. Young people were constantly being profiled because of their appearance, hairstyles, tattoos, phones and laptops, with officers sometimes accusing them of internet fraud without evidence.

For years, Nigerians shared accounts of these abuses online, demanding the disbandment of the unit and accountability for officers accused of violating citizens’ rights. The campaign had already gained momentum in December 2017, prompting the police to announce reforms. In 2018, then acting President Yemi Osinbajo ordered another reorganisation of SARS and directed the National Human Rights Commission to investigate complaints against the unit.

A panel submitted recommendations, including the prosecution of officers implicated in abuses. However, reports of brutality continued. The protests that brought the campaign to the streets in October 2020 were triggered not only by the constant police brutality that continued after the supposed reform, but also by another disturbing video.

On October 3, footage circulated online showing what was alleged to be SARS officers shooting a young man in front of a hotel in Ughelli, Delta State, before leaving with his vehicle. The incident reignited so much suppressed anger from the public, and #EndSARS began trending as Nigerians shared their own accounts of encounters with the police.

What followed was a nationwide protest and movement demanding an end to police brutality. Protesters called for the disbandment of SARS, the release of arrested demonstrators, justice for victims of police abuse, prosecution of officers responsible for misconduct and compensation for victims and their families. They also demanded police reforms that would prevent the same abuses from continuing under a different name.

On October 11, then Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu announced that SARS would be disbanded. The announcement did little to calm the protests. Nigerians had heard promises of reform before, and the government’s proposal to replace SARS with a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team raised fears that officers would simply be transferred into a new unit without meaningful accountability. Demonstrations continued, with protesters insisting that dismantling SARS had to be accompanied by justice for its victims and wider reforms to the police.

As the protests spread, innocent protesters faced harassment, arrests and the use of tear gas, water cannons and live ammunition by security forces. By October 15, Amnesty International reported that people had been killed during the protests, with hundreds injured or arrested. Human Rights Watch also documented the use of excessive force against demonstrators and attacks by armed police officers who disrupted peaceful protests. All of these responses deepened public anger over the treatment of citizens demanding protection from police violence.

On October 20, the Lagos State Government announced a 24-hour curfew, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. that day. At the Lekki Toll Gate, where protesters had maintained a largely peaceful demonstration, the situation turned deadly that evening. Soldiers arrived as demonstrators remained at the site. Eyewitnesses described security forces firing at the crowd, and videos recorded by protesters circulated online as people called for medical assistance. DJ Switch’s livestream became one of the most widely shared records of the shooting.

A lot of unarmed protesters were shot dead, sustaining wounds, and some were even declared missing, signalling that they had been arrested, or, better still, kidnapped.

 Human Rights Watch later documented eyewitness accounts of soldiers firing at protesters at Lekki, people with gunshot wounds and reports of bodies being removed from the scene. In November 2021, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry submitted its findings on the incident. The panel’s report concluded that the shooting involved the use of live ammunition and excessive force, and documented evidence relating to attempts to cover up aspects of the incident, but of course the federal government disputed the report, and the Nigerian Army denied firing live ammunition at protesters.

President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on October 22, two days after the Lekki shootings. In his broadcast, he warned against what he described as the hijacking of the protests and urged young Nigerians to stop demonstrating and engage the government instead. He acknowledged that lives had been lost and that reports of sexual violence had emerged, but did not directly address the Lekki shootings or name the protesters killed there.

His failure to directly address the central incident that had shocked the country drew questions from Nigerians who wanted answers about lives, properties that had been lost during the protests. The aftermath brought further questions about accountability and the treatment of people who had supported the movement. Human Rights Watch reported that banks froze accounts belonging to individuals and organisations that supported protesters, while prominent supporters faced travel restrictions.

Media organisations were also fined for broadcasting protest footage. In June 2021, the federal government suspended access to Twitter in Nigeria after the platform deleted a tweet by President Buhari that it said violated its rules. The government cited the platform’s use for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s unity, while human rights groups condemned the suspension as a restriction on freedom of expression. The ban lasted until January 2022.

Six years later, the history of #EndSARS remains a very painful reminder of the demands that brought Nigerians into the streets, which were simply an end to police brutality, justice for victims and accountability for the security forces. 

Feminist Coalition: The Women Behind the Movement’s Support System

The Feminist Coalition was only three months old when #EndSARS broke out in October 2020. Nigerian women formed the group in July to organise around women’s equality. Its founding members were Damilola Odufuwa, Odunayo Eweniyi, Layo Ogunbanwo, Ozzy Etomi, Ire Aderinokun, Karo Omu, Kiki Mordi, Laila Johnson-Salami, Obiageli Ofili Alintah, Fakhrriyyah Hashim, Jola Ayeye, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi and Tito Ovia.

According to an account on their medium, the idea had begun months earlier in December 2019, a conversation at a women only event organised by Wine & Whine prompted Damilola Odufuwa to discuss building a more sustainable way for women to organise around social, economic and political equality with Odunayo Eweniyi. By July 2020, the two had begun bringing together women they knew through activism and their work in different sectors.

The coalition’s founding account explains that the group was deliberately assembled from women with experience in grassroots organising, technology, media, public health, finance, nonprofit work and gender advocacy. Its priorities were women’s education, financial freedom and representation in public office.

The group had not yet launched a major project when the #EndSARS protests began. According to its own account, members met on the night of October 9, 2020, after seeing reports of police violence against protesters and agreed to help sustain the peaceful protests by raising funds for food, water, medical care and legal aid. They built the donation system, website, request forms, social media accounts and tracking sheets in a matter of hours.

FemCo’s October 15 progress report set out its approach, from support to helping keep protesters safe and sustaining the protesters. The coalition began by contributing its own money, and within hours of announcing its decision to support the protests, it had received ₦807,000 in donations; by October 10, the amount had passed ₦5 million.

Donations came from Nigerians and supporters abroad, and the group published regular updates showing what it received and how it spent the money. By October 15, FemCo reported receiving donations in naira, several foreign currencies, and Bitcoin. Its published figures recorded support for 100 peaceful protests in 25 states, ₦759,080 in medical bills for injured protesters, ₦400,000 for families of people killed by police, ₦500,000 in legal aid and ₦11,367,500 for supplies, including food, water and masks. These figures appeared in the coalition’s original progress report.

FemCo described spending its days checking requests through direct messages, verifying protests, paying bills and building a network of volunteer lawyers. It worked alongside other groups and initiatives, including End SARS Response, Legal Aid Network and Food Coven. 

In its December account, FemCo said restrictions had been placed on the Nigerian bank accounts it used and that Flutterwave deactivated its payment link. It moved to Bitcoin donations through BTCPay to keep receiving contributions. The coalition said the change was necessary to continue funding support for protesters.

It also reported that some people who had donated to, or received money from, the group complained about restrictions on their bank accounts. On October 22, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s national address, FemCo announced that it would stop accepting new donations for the protests. Its statement recorded ₦147,855,788.28 received, ₦60,403,235 disbursed, and ₦87,452,553.28 remaining. The remaining money was allocated to medical assistance, legal aid, relief for victims of police brutality and families of the deceased, a memorial for those killed, and mental health support. The group published the announcement on its social media account and preserved it in its official EndSARS project archive.

The work also brought consequences and backlash against the group, including online insults. FemCo’s founders said they initially kept their identities private because they were concerned about how feminism was perceived in Nigeria and whether revealing their names would affect public support. They went public on October 17.

In a later account, members said they were warned that security agencies were watching them and that their phones might have been bugged. They also said some private organisations cancelled work events involving founding members and their women-focused organisations after the public became aware of their association with FemCo and #EndSARS. These are the coalition members’ own accounts of what happened, recorded in their December 2020 statement.

One of the clearest examples of the pressure a member faced was Modupe Odele, the lawyer known online as Moe or Mochievous. Moe provided legal support to people arrested during the protests. On November 1, 2020, she was stopped at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos while preparing to travel to the Maldives for her birthday, and her passport was seized.

In a message published in her newsletter and reported at the time, she said an immigration officer told her that the action had been ordered “from above” and that she had seen a “wanted poster” bearing her image on the officer’s computer. She later publicly questioned why her passport was still being held when the government said there was no no-fly list.

Her passport was later returned on November 9. In a now-deleted Twitter post, she said she had collected it and been told she could travel. The pressure also followed members beyond the protests themselves. In its December account, FemCo said the experience left its members dealing with fear, exhaustion, anxiety and disrupted sleep while many continued to manage full-time jobs, businesses and family responsibilities. 

The coalition continued to direct resources towards people affected by police brutality after it stopped collecting protest donations. By March 2021, it reported distributing ₦500,000 each to 80 families who had lost loved ones to police brutality or had themselves been victims. It also funded medical and mental health support, as well as legal assistance.

In December 2020, separately using money intended for its women-focused work, FemCo organised a food drive that provided supplies to 1,000 low-income women and their families in two Lagos communities, working with Pearls Africa to distribute the food. The coalition said the food drive cost almost ₦8 million and involved women photographers, women-run businesses and women volunteers. FemCo’s role in #EndSARS has since been discussed largely through the money it raised. The coalition’s records show the scale of that fundraising, but they also document the less visible work of verifying requests, finding lawyers, arranging medical support, distributing supplies and tracing claims from people who had suffered police violence, with women at the forefront.

Women Who Took the Fight to the Streets and the Public Record

The women involved in EndSARS did not all work from the same position. Some were organising resources, while others were physically present at protest grounds, challenging government officials or documenting what happened when security forces attacked protesters. Aisha Yesufu, DJ Switch and Rinu Oduala, for example, became known for very different parts of the movement.

Aisha Yesufu was already a familiar face in Nigerian activism through her involvement in the Bring Back Our Girls movement. When protests against SARS began in October 2020, she joined demonstrators in Abuja. Photographs of her standing with her fist raised became some of the most recognisable images of the protests.  On October 10, she described protesters being attacked with tear gas and said security agents continued firing at demonstrators nearby. Her posts that day captured the danger protesters faced, while her public statements challenged attempts to persuade protesters to leave the streets before their demands were met.

She also spoke about a meeting between government officials and protesters’ representatives. In Twitter posts on October 13, she disputed claims that anyone had agreed to end the demonstrations, saying protesters insisted on continuing their action. She rejected the suggestion that the government could restore public trust through a meeting while the underlying demands remained unresolved. 

For DJ Switch, on the night of October 20, she was at the Lekki Toll Gate when soldiers opened fire on protesters. As the shooting unfolded, she livestreamed what she could see on Instagram, recording injured protesters, people trying to help one another and the confusion as those present sought our medical assistance.

The livestream became crucial public evidence because it let people outside the toll gate witness events as they happened. She later explained that she continued recording because she feared the authorities would deny what had happened. In an interview with GQ, she said she thought she might die and wanted the world to see the events for itself. After the shooting, she reported receiving threats and went into hiding.  Her livestream and testimony also became part of the wider dispute over what happened at Lekki and whether Nigerian authorities would acknowledge the security forces’ actions.

Another woman at the forefront of the movement was Rinu Oduala, known on Twitter as Savvy Rinu. She became involved before she was appointed to the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry. In early October, she joined protesters who stayed overnight at the Lagos State House of Assembly in Alausa, demanding a response from the state government.

She shared updates from the grounds as demonstrators slept outside, waited for officials and continued pressing for their demands to be heard. In her now-deleted post on October 9, she wrote that there were no tents or chairs, but that protesters were prepared to sleep on the ground because they were not there to joke. Rinu also used her account to report what she described as harassment by police at the Assembly grounds.

As the night wore on, protesters said police dismantled their tents and switched off the lights around them. Rinu warned that they were in danger and asked that the harassment be made public. She shared protest updates, helped mobilise public attention and challenged attempts to bring the action to an early end. She was later appointed as one of the youth representatives on the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which was set up to investigate complaints of police brutality and the Lekki Toll Gate shooting.

The appointment put her in an official process meant to answer the people who had demanded accountability in the streets. In February 2021, she resigned after the panel allowed the Lekki Toll Gate to reopen while questions about the shooting remained unresolved. In her statement, she argued that the process showed insufficient commitment to investigating the Lekki incident and described attempts to discredit her, including circulating fake tweets and attacking her age. Her original February 12 post and the Foundation for Investigative Journalism’s report reproducing her statements document her reasons for leaving. 

Women such as Aisha Yesufu, DJ Switch, and Rinu Oduala joined these efforts, along with others like Feyikemi “FK” Abudu, who organised the End SARS Response fundraising effort, which began with an appeal to feed protesters spending the night outside the Lagos State House of Assembly. They later used the money for medical bills, food, ambulances, and other assistance for protesters.  All of these women contributed effortlessly to the movement; their contributions should be remembered as part of the movement’s history.

The Cost of Showing Up

Women’s involvement in #EndSARS also raises questions about solidarity and whose struggles receive public attention. Although SARS and police brutality affect women too, young men are mostly targeted by SARS, while women also face sexual harassment, sexual violence and other forms of abuse by security personnel. Women still showed up, helping to organise protests, raise funds, provide medical and legal assistance, and document abuses. That solidarity stands in contrast to the response women often receive when they organise around rape, femicide and other forms of male violence against women. These campaigns frequently encounter victim-blaming, public indifference and attempts to discredit the women raising the alarm. Women’s willingness to support a movement beyond their own immediate experiences has not always been matched by the same urgency when women are demanding safety and accountability for violence directed at them.

The Feminist Coalition also faced hostility; as the group helped fund the protests, people accused it of trying to hijack a leaderless movement and redirect it toward feminism. In October 2020, the attacks, which were mostly online and now deleted tweets, even though some were documented by the nation online, included allegations that FemCo stole the money meant for protesters; the backlash was not limited to accusations about the coalition’s politics. 

In March 2021, questions spread online after people noticed a Bitcoin transaction involving funds donated to the movement. Trolls and critics accused them of secretly moving or withdrawing donations. FemCo responded in a March 12, 2021 statement, explaining that the transaction reflected a sale initiated in November 2020 and outlining how it allocated the remaining funds. When FemCo announced in May 2021 that it had emailed its completed audit to donors, critics argued that it should have made the report publicly available, given that donors had raised the money to support a national protest.

The hostility towards FemCo cannot be separated from the fact that a group of young feminist women had become highly visible in a movement that was not organised around women’s liberation. People welcomed their work when it helped protesters, but they also targeted their feminist identity. The coalition said its members were called “witches,” “cultists” and “lipstick terrorists”, and that some experienced professional repercussions after their involvement became public. FemCo’s own account of the backlash records these experiences.

Six years later, the police response to the Lekki Toll Gate memorial on October 20, 2026, offered another reminder of how little the risk of showing up has changed. Police fired tear gas at people gathered to remember the victims of #EndSARS, according to TheCable’s report. People had come to remember those killed by state violence and were met with force again.