Popular Nigerian actor-turned-politician, Desmond Elliot, has recounted a harrowing experience during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, revealing how he narrowly escaped an attack by unknown assailants.
The #EndSARS movement, which was a response to the police unit known for extrajudicial killings and extortion, aimed to disband the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
While the protests led to the special unit’s dissolution, it was met with a violent crackdown that tragically resulted in the deaths of several protesters.
Elliot, who is serving as a lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, faced severe backlash during the protests after a video surfaced in which he referred to Nigerian youths as “children” during a plenary session.
This sparked social media uproar, and he quickly became the target of memes and online ridicule. The backlash led to him being labelled “Nigeria Twitter’s number one scapegoat.”
In an interview on Nollywood On Radio, Elliot vividly described the terrifying events he experienced during the protests, particularly when he was trapped in his Surulere constituency office due to a curfew.
He recalled how the curfew, which had been imposed during the unrest, kept him from returning home.
He said, “When there was a curfew during the EndSARS period, a lot of bad boys came into Surulere, and because of the curfew, I could not go home. I was stuck in Lekki, so I had to go back to my office in Surulere.
“I was inside my office and never knew there was going to be anything, so I was watching the TV in my office because I had the intention to spend the night there.”
The situation quickly escalated when Elliot heard screams coming from his landlady’s daughter, warning him to leave the office.
“Next thing, I heard my landlady’s daughter screaming, saying I don’t stay there,” he recalled.
Then things took a dramatic turn when a bottle filled with fuel and set on fire was thrown into his office, starting a fire.
“I had to call the chief of staff for help. I have never been so scared in my life; it was horrible,” Elliot confessed.
Elliot, who transitioned into politics in 2015, won a seat in the Lagos State House of Assembly representing the Surulere Constituency under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
