TheCable

The website of the Nigeria police force (NPF) is currently offline as protests against the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) continue across the country.

Checks by TheCable on Saturday revealed that the website, www.npf.gov.ng, was not available — the website went offline on Thursday.

On the police website was the message: “This Account has been suspended. Contact your hosting provider for more information.”

The development is one in a series of targeted attacks against the websites and social media accounts of government-owned institutions.

On Thursday night, the Twitter handle of the National Broadcasting Commission was taken over by the ‘Anonymous’ hackers.

“We #Anonymous have taken over all the NG Official Twitter’s Account to support  #ENDPOLICEBRUTALITY. WE’RE TOGETHER WITH NIGERIANS. EXPECT UNEXPECTED,” the group had written on the Twitter handle of the NBC.

As the ‘Anonymous’ hackers continued to tweet in support of the #EndSARS movement through the NBC account, the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was also down for a while on Friday, but was later recovered.

The youth have taken to the streets for more than one week now, calling for reforms within the police force.

Although Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, has announced the disbandment of the SARS unit and announced the creation of the special weapon and tactics (SWAT) team as a replacement, the youth have insisted on a total reform of the force, as well as better welfare for the citizens.