October 5th, 2020 at 12:45 pm
As a campaign against police brutality is ongoing on social media, Popular Ghanaian actress Juliet Ibrahim has shared a personal experience on how she got harassed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad also called SARS in Nigeria.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad is an investigative unit under the supervision Nigeria’s Deputy Inspector General of Police. Recent videos circulating on social media has officers extorting money and shooting people. Currently there is a strong campaign against the unit on Twitter with the hashtag EndSARS.
Juliet did not hesitate to share her experience with the world. In a series of posts on her official Twitter page, she recounted her encounter with SARS one evening when she was in Nigeria. According to her, she was returning from the movies around 10pm in Lekki last year. She explained that she was in an Uber with her sister and assistant when the SARS Officers stopped them. The beautiful actress outlined that the officers stopped them for no reason and asked them to step out of the car for them to conduct a search. She stated that, the SARS Officers insisted on searching them even after her assistant showed his international Ghanaian passport. She indicated that the officers were drunk. In another post, she said that, ever since her experience in Lekki, she has been so scared that she never wishes to go and watch movie late in the night. She stressed that people should never live in fear because law enforcement officers who are meant to protect them from danger.
“Are we going to sit back and watch more innocent people killed, harassed and attacked by SARS before we start speaking up” Juliet asked.
I have personally been stopped by #Sars officers in lekki after watching a movie at the IMAX cinema around 10 pm last year. We were in an Uber car and without any reasons given; we were asked by 2 drunk SARS Officers to step out of the car so they can search our bags! #SarsAlert
— Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) October 4, 2020
Are we going to sit back and watch more innocent people killed, harassed and attacked by #SARS before we start speaking up?! It happened to ME TOO and it can happen to your Fathers, Mothers, Uncles, brothers and sisters and Foreigners visiting Nigeria!!#ENDSARSNOW #MrGovernor
— Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) October 4, 2020
We demanded to know why because this is not done and he insisted on searching even after my Assistant had shown him his international Ghanaian passport. They didn’t have an answer as to why they decided to stop my sister, myself and my assistant that night! #EndSARS #MrGovernor
— Juliet Ibrahim (@julietibrahim) October 4, 2020
