The Central bank of Nigeria, after receiving a court order that allowed individual banks to freeze 20 bank accounts related to the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria till January 2021, has further accused the account holders of funding terrorism without any evidence asides from the narration with which the monies were sent “#EndSARS.”

Newswire reports that the CBN, through its head of economic intelligence, Joseph Omayuku, told the court that following investigations, “There is a grave allegation that the defendants are involved in suspected terrorism financing via their bank accounts in contravention of the provisions of extant laws and regulations.” The frozen accounts include that of a public affairs company, Gatefield Nigeria Limited, which organised funds for media coverage of the protests. This move comes after several Gestapo-like arrests have been made of citizens who were part of the #EndSARS movement including #EndSARS WhatsApp group admins. 

The civic and media space in Nigeria, under the Buhari Administration, is shrinking. The former military leader who presented himself as a “reformed democrat” during the 2015 elections seems to be throwing the country back to the military junta of the 80s when he was Head of State. Nigeria’s democracy index since 2015 has dropped by 18 decimal points according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy index, classifying Nigeria as a Hybrid Regime. 

The #EndSARS movement, a series of peaceful demonstrations calling for the end of police brutality in Nigeria has been met with more violence by the Nigerian government who have been accused of deploying the military and shooting at protesters. The government who first denied these allegations later admitted to deploying soldiers to “restore order.”

A social media bill which has been lingering in parliament is quickly gaining momentum and has passed second reading in parliament, as Nigerian leaders are pushing for the regulation of social media, especially Twitter where many Nigerians organised from, to demand an end to police brutality. While lawmakers claim the bill is to stop the spread of falsehood, legislation known as the Cybercrime Act already exists to tackle the disinformation problem in Nigeria.

This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral and political reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.