In October 2020, Imoleayo was among scores of young people who took to the streets in Nigeria to protest against violence, extortion and killings by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

As a professional computer programmer, Imoleayo used his skills to promote the protests on Twitter and Facebook, using the viral hashtag #EndSARS.

Two weeks later, in the middle of the night, 20 armed men raided his home. They smashed his bedroom window and pointed a gun at him. After seizing his mobile phones and computer, they then locked his wife, elderly mother and seven-month-old son in a room and cut off the power supply to the streetlights around his house.

They took Imoleayo to state security service headquarters where they held him in an underground cell for 41 days without access to a lawyer or his family. While there, he was cuffed, blindfolded and chained to a steel cabinet. He was also forced to sleep on the floor and security officers interrogated him a total of five times.

Imoleayo suffered pneumonia and was eventually released on bail in December 2020. Now, he’s facing trumped-up charges of ‘conspiracy with others to disturb public peace’ and ‘disturbing public peace’.

Take action now and demand that all charges against Imoleayo are dropped immediately.