A file photo of Naira Marley.
Naira Marley has scrapped the #ENDSARS protest scheduled to hold today. The musician announced the cancellation via his verified Twitter handle where he has over 2 million followers.
“We won’t be protesting anymore because there’s tons of changes being made right now.
“As a Marlian we will give them a week to see the changes and if there’s no changes we will start a mass protest. #togetherwecan,” he tweeted.
On Monday, the rapper during an Instagram live session opposed calls to #EndSARS. He called for a protest arguing that ending SARS is not the problem just because of a ‘‘few bad eggs”.
We won’t be protesting anymore because there’s tons of changes being made right now. As a Marlian we will give them a week to see the changes and if there’s no changes we will start a mass protest. #togetherwecan https://t.co/RNBXZ0IOfw
— nairamarley (@officialnairam1) October 6, 2020
The protest was a cry for change, Nigerian youths and citizens should feel safe. The government have promised to make changes. Whilst we anticipate their actions it’s important we stick together to sort the issues on ground, #EndSARSBrutality #EndPoliceBrutality
— nairamarley (@officialnairam1) October 6, 2020
If they don’t arrange themselves we will rearrange them..so we will give them a week and if we don’t see any changes we will make changes.#EndSARSBrutality #EndPoliceBrutality #TogetherWeCan
— nairamarley (@officialnairam1) October 6, 2020
‘‘I don’t think EndSARS is the problem. It’s not about EndSARS, what are you talking about EndSARS? If you end SARS, the police are going to shoot or somebody else with a gun is still going to shoot,” he said.
“You need to stop the shooting, it’s not about ending SARS. Like to be honest, there are actually tons of SARS that are actually doing their work. Not all police are bad.”
In the past few days, several influential Nigerians have spoken up and voiced their displeasure on the issue and have called for the total dissolution of the police unit.
Things to note from Naira Marley’s Chat with @PoliceNG
1). Police would get SARS off the roads and enforce this themselves
2). All Police officers henceforth must wear police Uniforms.
3). You can record the police, however not in Security Concious zones pic.twitter.com/ZVVaNtAsIP— Olanipekun Tobi D. (@fynskin) October 6, 2020
This is owing to reported cases of extra-judicial killings, extortion, harassment, and other vices perpetrated by the operatives.
Social media users shared experiences that looked to open up old wounds and sparked up another chapter in the #EndSARs conversation. On Sunday, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, banned some police units, including SARS from operating on the roads.