As brands and organisations race to align and stand in solidarity with the Nigerian youths, who made up the highest percentage of the populace, as they protest over police brutality, FirstBank, a foremost commercial bank in the country, has made known its stand.
In a statement released by the bank, the viral tweet about how the bank was preventing members of its staff from joining the protests made popular under the hashtag EndSARS has been debunked.
Recall that the protests started as a social media campaign demanding for the Nigerian government to end the deployment of SARS and between October 9 and 11, 2020, the #ENDSARS hashtag had up to 28 million tweets.
According to the bank, not only was the tweet untrue, it also reiterated its consistency at calling for necessary reforms of all sectors in the country.
“Our attention has been drawn to the tweet making the rounds on social media on shutting down the FirstBank website following a false tweet that the Bank prevented staff from joining the ongoing protests in the country.
“As the largest banking institution in Nigeria, it is not unlikely that we may be seen as a target in circumstances such as these. This is rather unfortunate as we believe far reaching reform is necessary and we have said as much on a number of occasions across our platforms.
In the process of change, some pain will be borne by all and some anger may well be misdirected. We understand this as a part of the process of the struggle.
“We have a large staff strength and an even larger customer base who may be affected by any disruption and this would be a pity as a number are also contributing in many ways to ensure that voices are heard and required action is taken.
“We have been consistent in our message on the need to end all brutality and carry out necessary reforms. We will continue to lend our voice accordingly,” the statement read.
Nigerians have continued to shared both stories and video evidence of how members of SARS engaged in kidnapping, fail to wear face coverings, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings, and extortion in the country, while the governments race to restore normalcy.
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