FJA Shortlist 2021
Category: Outstanding Investigative Reporting
Kemi Busari (Nigeria)
Blood on Uniforms Series
PREMIUM TIMES Nigeria - March 2021
Blood On Uniforms (1): Inside extra-judicial killings by police officers enforcing COVID-19 lockdown
The original publication is available via the following link: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/445952-blood-on-uniforms-1-inside-extra-judicial-killings-by-police-officers-enforcing-covid-19-lockdown.html
At least five people were shot dead while many others sustained gunshot injuries from police shootings in a Kaduna community.
By Kemi Busari
March 1, 2021
By Thursday, April 9, 2020, ten days after Nigeria entered a partial lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigerian security officials had extra-judicially killed 13 people while enforcing the curfew – the virus had only claimed six lives by then. By May 4, when the government eased the lockdown, about 20 persons had been killed in similar circumstances. For three months, investigative journalist Kemi Busari followed the trails of these arbitrary killings which have left many families devastated, with no hope of justice.
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In the second part of this series on extrajudicial killings during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria, Kemi Busari investigates the killing of an awaiting trial inmate at the Kaduna Correctional facility and why prison authorities refuse to release his body.
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Blood on Uniforms (3): In Nigeria’s South-east, no justice for people killed during COVID-19 lockdown
The original publication is available via the following link: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/447496-blood-on-uniforms-3-in-nigerias-south-east-no-justice-for-people-killed-during-covid-19-lockdown.html
At least 20 people were extra-judicially killed by security operatives during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria last year.
This is the fourth part in a series on the extra-judicial killings that occurred during last year’s COVID-19 lockdown.
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Blood On Uniforms (5): 10-year-old dead after police raid on Jigawa market
The original publication is available via the following link: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/448933-blood-on-uniforms-5-10-year-old-dead-after-police-raid-on-jigawa-market.html
Residents say they heard gunshots, then everyone scampered for safety. Some moments later, Usman was found lying unconscious in the market, blood oozing out of his skull. He had been hit.
By Thursday, April 9, 2020, ten days after Nigeria entered a partial lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officers of the Nigeria police, army, correctional service and others had extra-judicially killed 13 people while enforcing the curfew – the virus had only claimed six lives by then. By May 4, when the government eased the lockdown, about 20 persons had been killed in similar circumstances. For three months, investigative journalist, Kemi Busari, followed the trails of these arbitrary killings which have left many families devastated, with no hope of justice.
Read more