A former British minister has urged the UK Government to impose targeted sanctions on Nigerian officials over the handling of the #EndSARS protests.
Theresa Villiers, who is a former Environment Secretary, told British Parliament last night that Nigerian officials needed to be punished over alleged brutality in suppression of peaceful protests.
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She said reports she gathered from some of her constituents, who were of Nigerian descent, and information from the Amnesty International, showed gross violation of peoples’ rights in the way the #EndSARS protests were suppressed.
Villiers, a Member of Parliament from the ruling Conservative Party, said the UK Government should place travel ban and freeze assets of Nigerian officials found to be involved in suppression of the protests.
She was speaking during a one-hour-twenty-minute debate held in British Parliament to debate the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria.
A few other parliamentarians supported her call and argued that the only way the UK government could express its dissatisfaction with the alleged rights violation was through an imposition of targeted sanctions.
The representative of the UK Minister on Africa said the British Government had expressed its concerns to the Nigerian Government over the handling of the #EndSARS protests.
She said Britain would continue to engage with the Nigerian Government to see the progress the reforms promised.
The parliamentary debate followed a petition created by one Siles Ojo, which garnered about a quarter of a million signatures. UK Parliament entertains any petition signed 100,000 people.
The petition urged the UK Government to impose sanctions against Nigerian government officials and police officers.
