As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread over 200 countries in the world, almost all the countries have imposed a strict lockdown with stringent rules to not let the virus spread extensively. Though it has worked well to control the virus spread, the panic and tension this lockdown created have gone lethal.
The stringent acts that took by the Nigerian government to enforce the lockdown have killed more civilians than the virus did. The NHRC, National Human Rights Commission revealed that the Nigerian security forces had killed 18 people in eight separate incidents of extrajudicial killings from March 30, the date when the lockdown was implemented.
The Human Rights Commission asked the citizens to send the videos of police brutality on the civilians and the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on the NHRC statement. Hence, many of the police officers who are involved and in these incidents are arrested and demoted.
Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country and biggest energy producer, has recorded 407 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths from the highly contagious lung disease.