The Take-It-Back Movement (TIB) has described late former President Muhammadu Buhari as a leader who left only a legacy of brutality, systemic repression, and gross human rights abuses.
The death of Buhari which was announced on Sunday has sparked a wide range of reactions from civil society organizations, pro-democracy groups, and citizens across the country.
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page on Monday, the National Coordinator of the TIB, Juwon Sanyaolu, recalled a litany of brutality and abuses perpetrated under Buhari’s 2015-2023 administration, particularly against young protesters and civil rights activists.
Sanyaolu recounted horrible experiences of police brutality orchestrated under Buhari’s watch, especially during nationwide protests against bad governance and Police impunity.
“In January 2021 at a protest, Police arrested me, dumped me behind their truck, hand-chained me to the vehicle. When I challenged them, an officer slammed my head to the floor of the truck while another sprayed pepper spray directly into my eyes. It was horrifying — I would have died if I were asthmatic,” Sanyaolu recounted.
In another incident, he said that a month later, he was stripped naked, bound, and beaten with metal rods by police officers before being locked in what he described as a “toilet-turned-cell.”
“Barely a month after, at another protest, police subjected me to immense torture, stripped, hands tied to the back, beaten with metallic rods. My joints knew no peace. I was later dumped in a toilet, but it was described as a cell,” he said.
Sanyaolu noted that in a few months after, “I was arrested and subjected to further torture by the police. My left ear never remained the same till date.”
He stressed that his personal experiences were not isolated, citing the widespread brutality faced by many Nigerian youths during the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police violence.
“These are just few of the many human rights abuses, and torture I was subjected to under that ruthless regime,” he said.
“There are many others, comrades whose rights were violently bruised under the Government of Buhari,” he added.
According to Sanyaolu, “Many young people were sent to a journey of no return during the EndSARS protest. Some are still in prison.”
He further condemned what he described as Buhari’s authoritarian and militarized Presidency, accusing the former president of deploying state power as a tool for silencing dissent, repressing the press, and stifling democratic expression.
He stressed, “Buhari left behind a legacy of sorrow, tears, and blood,” declaring, “May he not end well, even in eternity.”