If I start to talk about my experience with SARS! On P.O.P day in Uyo, everybody was out and about saying goodbye to their new friends etc. I went to eat fish on a road that was popular for its nightlife. That’s how several police vans pulled up. Ahnahn...

There was nothing extraordinary going on just more people out on the road than usual. The next series of events happened so fast that it may have been 2 hours long, maybe 4 I don’t know.

So I was there eating grilled fish in one of the many fish stalls. If you know Uyo, you...

Know they don’t play about their grilled fish. It’s big business for the people. Anyway, that’s how these “police vans” pulled up in their multitudes. SARS guys started jumping out, dragging people out of their vehicles, hitting them, whisking innocent...

bystanders (mostly women) into their vans. It was shocking af! I’d never seen anything like that. I sat at my stall just wondering wtf when one of them walked up to my friend (male) and I and said “You’re one of them) while pointing at me. “One of who?” I looked up at him

Next thing I knew he was joined by like 2 more SARS officials. They grabbed me and while I was telling them not to touch me, I friend got up to shield me from them and they started beating him. Lmaoooo

E be like feem. Is that the end?
No!

By this time, the other people in the stall were yelling at them. I could only hear them in the distance because we were now surrounded by like 8 or more SARS officials. More of them were now beating my friend for supporting me “A Woman Barrister” in their words. They insisted...

that I was the one they were going to kill first. I told them they had better do it otherwise there would be problem. That’s how they kept dragging me away to separate my friend and I. Remember they jumped him soon after grabbing me from the stall.

From a distance I could hear him calling my name so I looked in his direction. Lo and behold they had handcuffed my friend to the back of one of the vans and started driving off.

Ki lo fa? How did we even get here? I started screaming his name but also noted that I was feeling sharp pain on my back. It was cold... very cold but I didn’t care. I was fighting to get away from like 4 men at this point.

Then I turned...

A machete (cutlass) had repeatedly landed on my back 12 times.
12 times!!!!!!!!
Unsterilized, rusty-ass, caked machete! Ah I don suffer.
I lost my shit.
All this time, there were other babes in the van they were taking me to.

Poor girls had been begging for them to stop hitting me. I was over it. When they finally stopped, I walked into the van and started asking the girls why they were there. Some had experienced this before. They were almost immune to my gasps.

They said they’d label everyone a sex worker under the disguise of “keeping sex off the streets of Uyo”. I was stressed!

They said sometimes these SARS guys would take them to cell and demand sex for bail.
I hate this place!

Fortunately for me, I had a contact at the police in the state but my phone battery was on 2%. I also knew that I had 1 shot because police dey collect phone. They don’t want you to be able to make contact.

I sent a text to one of their oga’s that his boys had me and I was gonna kill them when I got out. As soon as I sent it, one of them grabbed my phone off me. It was between God, these idiots and me. I kept asking the girls questions.

Some were so chilled, I got worried. Shey somebody wee not sleep here like this? Our ride started moving. We were one out of like 20 police vans. The longest (illegal) police convoy I’d ever seen.
15 minutes later...
Chaos. Radio chatter. What was going on?
“WHO IS ANITA?”

The vans stopped I was hearing my name several vans away. The planned worked. Their boss had asked them to release my friend and I. They drove to their base and lined everyone up like “yAhOo BoYs” you see on TV. Innocent people. Not a single person did anything wrong.

I left Uyo the next day.
Nigeria is a fucking zoo! A dungeon you hear me????
After speaking to their boss, he continued to apologise. I told him I was bringing legal proceedings against them and he said “Anita the police is very much a part of the legal system.”

I felt cold

The government is aware of how these Armed-Robbers-in-disguise treat us. They won’t do anything because it’s not their kids being treated this way. We are not their flesh.

Some people in this country feed off the violence and police brutality. It’s a game to them.
#EndSarsNow