For multiple months, there have been protests in Nigeria using the hashtag #EndSars. The protestors have been demonstrating against police brutality, and specifically the Nigerian Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit in the Nigerian police who have committed multiple abuses and are responsible for much police brutality. In response to these protests, the Nigerian Central bank froze the bank accounts of several protesters days after the protests began. They did this without following the procedure required by law. Recently, the High Court in Abuja has ordered the Central Bank to unfreeze their accounts. However, the illegal freezing of their accounts for several months was a clear violation of Human Rights, especially articles 12 and 17 of the Universal Declaration

WHY WAS THIS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS?

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration States, ‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.’ This means that it is a violation of human rights to interfere with someone’s private affairs without sufficient reason. 

In addition, Article 17 states in its second clause: ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.’ This means that it is a violation to take someone’s property away without a proper reason. 

The Nigerian Central Bank violated both of these human rights when they illegally froze the bank accounts of protesters, as they did not have a proper legal reason for interfering with their private bank accounts. It is also a violation of Article 17 as they were temporarily deprived of their property (their money) without sufficient reason. The Central Bank abused their power by avoiding legal procedure in order to punish protesters, stopping them from sending money to help the protests.  Proper procedure requires the central bank governor to obtain a court order which suspects criminal activity in order to freeze the bank accounts. This was not followed. Instead, they froze the accounts immediately and sought a court order later to continue freezing them. 

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Although the unfreezing of the bank accounts is a good thing, this case represents an abuse of power by the Central Bank. Because of this, it is important to have an inquiry to find out how this was allowed to happen. This would help hold the people responsible accountable so that this does not happen again. A proper inquiry would also assure protesters that the violation has been taken seriously and that their human rights will not be further violated, allowing them to exercise their right to take part in protests such as #EndSARS.