Victims and families of protesters shot dead by security forces say promises of accountability, compensation not met.

Lagos and Ogbomoso, Nigeria — Agbeze Ifeanyi Matthew huddled on the ground in fear, thinking his city had become a battlefield as a barrage of army gunfire rang out around him.

Beside him that night, hundreds of other young protesters were gathered at the Lekki tollgate in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, waving green and white national flags and singing the national anthem.

The crowd tried to lay low, but a few minutes later, Matthew felt something hit his chest followed by a stream of warm liquid. When he looked down, he saw that he had been shot – the bullet entering his chest before exiting through his back.

Matthew stood up and tried to run to safety, but stumbled, fell, and passed out. His fellow protesters carried him to the nearby General Hospital, where he was treated before being transferred to another facility.

“I had lost a lot of blood because there were two openings. While I was being treated, I could hear the doctors and nurses talking, but I couldn’t react or open my eyes,” the 35-year-old content creator told Al Jazeera. “I thought I was going to die.”

The bullet fractured two ribs, but Matthew was one of the lucky ones to make it out alive. That October 20, 2020 night, there were 48 casualties, including a dozen people killed, after Nigeria’s military opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.

#EndSARS protests

Five years ago, thousands of young Nigerians, including Matthew, participated in the nationwide #EndSARS protests – a two-week long demonstration against the rogue police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, which stood accused of a slew of crimes including harassment, rape, profiling, extortion, and ro