By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has allegedly forced the deactivation of crowdfunding donation links and bank account being used by the coalition supporting the protests to end police brutality across Nigeria.
Feminist Coalition, which serves as the channel for receiving donations to sustain the protests ongoing in the country, put out a tweet that its bank account has been deactivated while its donation links have been blocked.
“For demanding an end to police brutality, we are now under attack! Our bank account has been deactivated and so has the Flutterwave donation link. Our members’ lives are also being threatened! #SARSMustEnd,” they wrote via their official Twitter account.
It was reported that the fintech platform used for the donation, Flutterwave, issued a warning to the account handlers yesterday about an update that would be carried out on the platform, but their action became suspicious when their bank account was also deactivated.
It was gathered that the development followed pressure from the apex bank and other government institutions that the protests finance stream should be cut off.
According to reports, Flutterwave has been asked to prove that the donations were not made by terrorists.
The account had raised N25 million, $9,000, CA$4,450, £5,000 before the deactivation earlier today.
But to keep the flow of funds going so as to provide support for the #EndSARS campaigners, the organisation has created alternative links to receive donations.
The new channel allows cryptocurrency, which is a more decentralised payment system as it cannot be easily controlled by a third party, especially the government, which will want to disrupt the flow of funds to demonstrators.
The donations received by the group have been used to provide food, face masks and pay hospital bills of protesters.
The agitators are demanding an end to police brutality in Nigeria. They have also asked for a total reform of the Nigeria Police Force.
Modupe Gbadeyanka