Eight hundred forty-eight extrajudicial killings have taken place across Nigeria in the last three years, a civil society group, Global Rights, has revealed. In its ‘Mass Atrocities Casualties’ tracking report published recently, the group said the execution took place between 2020 and June 2023 in the country. 

It added that 127 cases were recorded between January and June 2023.

“We seem to be running roundabout the same figures every year, with the exception of 2020 and 2022. But when you think about 127 people killed in the first half of 2023, and you think about the number of officers who have been sanctioned for these killings, then you know we’re still very way off from the way things need to be dealt with,” stated Global Rights executive director Abiodun Baiyewu in the report.

The executions occurred in issues like casualties of terrorist attacks, cult killings, communal clashes, and extrajudicial killings.

“So, what you’re seeing is the extraction of the number of people who have died through extrajudicial killings. And those were the least numbers, numbers we were able to verify,” Mr Baiyewu stressed. 

According to Mr Baiyewu, since 2018, Global Rights has kept a tab on the mass atrocities across Nigeria. The rights group said 271 and 253 people were killed in 2020 and 2022.

On Friday, several Nigerians marked the third anniversary of the Lekki Tollgate massacre. 

Though disputed by the authorities, scores of young Nigerian protesters were shot and killed by law enforcement officers on October 20, 2020, in the heat of the #EndSARS protests that rocked Africa’s most populous nation. The protests nationwide were to protest police brutality, especially at the hands of a notorious police unit called Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Global Rights said 123 people were killed.