Nigeria’s #EndSars Protest Donation Investigation Report

Taiwo Owolabi
6 min readSep 22, 2023

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Disclaimer:

The following investigation report was conducted solely for my personal research and learning purposes during my leisure time and it has no affiliation with my employer in any way.

To the best of my knowledge, this report is not connected to any existing government or private investigation activities related to the #EndSARS protest. All findings were gathered using OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) tools, and the information presented here is accurate to the best of my knowledge.

This report was written on 20th September 2023.

SUMMARY OF THE EVENT

The #EndSARS movement is a decentralized social movement and a series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The movement derives its name from the slogan #EndSARS, which originated in 2017 as a Twitter campaign demanding the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police Force accused of human rights abuses.

In October 2020, following fresh revelations of SARS-related abuses, the movement experienced a massive resurgence, leading to nationwide demonstrations across major Nigerian cities. The protests were fueled by public outrage on social media, with over 28 million tweets using the hashtag #EndSARS on Twitter alone.

The movement quickly gained global attention, sparking solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in the diaspora and sympathizers in major cities worldwide. One of the most significant aspects of the protests was their leadership, a youth-driven movement, organized organically without a central figure.

Amidst mounting pressure, the Nigerian Police Force announced the dissolution of SARS on October 11, 2020. However, protests continued as demonstrators demanded broader police reforms and justice for victims of police brutality. (Source: Wikipedia, CNN & Open-Source Reports)

OBJECTIVE OF THIS INVESTIGATION

The goal of this investigation is to trace and analyze the flow of #EndSARS donation funds, majorly focusing on;

  • Identifying the cryptocurrency wallet addresses involved in the transactions.
  • Tracking transactions between different wallet addresses.
  • Establishing connections between fund sources (donos) and recipients.
  • Uncovering patterns, trends, and relationships within the wallets used in the donation process.

The #EndSARS protests were largely sustained by voluntary donations from Nigerian citizens and the international community. Many supporters chose to donate using cryptocurrencies, allowing funds to bypass government restrictions.

On October 13, 2020, Feminist Coalition (Feminist Co.), one of the leading organizers of the protest officially announced via their Twitter account that they had received and were managing cryptocurrency donations to support the protest.

“If you still want to donate here’s our BTC address: 1CWdxSTKang1toEv2an1AY3z8cuwiapyno”.

Further analysis will explore how these funds were distributed, whether there were any suspicious transactions, and if there were external influences attempting to manipulate the donation process.

A preliminary investigation conducted on the wallet address posted by the Feminist Coalition (Feminist Co.) revealed the following findings.

  1. The End Sars donation BTC wallet, 1CWdxSTKang1toEv2an1AY3z8cuwiapyno was created and first seen on 13th October 2020. And the last activity of the wallet seen on blockchain was on the 10th march, 2021.
  2. The address has transacted 250 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has also received a total sum of 1.47310348 BTC ($39,883.73) and has sent a total of 1.47301348 BTC ($39,881.29).
  3. The current value of this address as at 20th September 2023 is 0.00009000 BTC ($2.44).
  4. The total incoming transaction on the wallet is 248 and the total outgoing transaction on the wallet is 2.

5. Between 13th October 2020 to 10th march, 2021, the EndSars donation BTC wallet 1CWdxSTKang1toEv2an1AY3z8cuwiapyno received donations from the following wallet addresses.

  • Binance wallet 3ChF7VYm5CGom3iVn1LHAiR4VqDTJpKoDK: This address has transacted 664 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 20.15063229 BTC ($546,390) and has sent a total of 20.15063229 BTC ($546,390) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet: 1Q8NRg4Sbx873jEQjRH7vcY3HK8hc88a5L: This address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.06404971 BTC ($1,736.73) and has sent a total of 0.06404971 BTC ($1,736.73) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet: 3JXRVxhrk2o9f4w3cQchBLwUeegJBj6BEp: This address is associated with Luno, and it has transacted 1,219,351 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 2155981.46259876 BTC ($58,475,715,018) and has sent a total of 2155981.46217472 BTC ($58,475,715,006) The current value of this address is 0.00042404 BTC ($11.50).
  • BTC Wallet: 3E5NsFYg9H64TSB9MroJCCZJG7dJ179Yge: This address is associated with Luno, and it has transacted 340,807 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 775489.74636907 BTC ($21,033,259,420) and has sent a total of 775489.74631931 BTC ($21,033,259,419) The current value of this address is 0.00004976 BTC ($1.35).
  • BTC Wallet: bc1qsq7vz6u2w84apl5vqq3h4qeucwfr6d8hqwmj85: This address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.54028438 BTC ($14,663.71) and has sent a total of 0.54028438 BTC ($14,663.71) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet: bc1qjp4n2unpc2q5n6fjfyfrjq02yxhu9s2ldkx9yg: This address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.39195935 BTC ($10,638.06) and has sent a total of 0.39195935 BTC ($10,638.06) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet: bc1qpen0aj43e9x8dlszkwslle8qwy7lr3jsnmvyp5: This address has transacted 21,506 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 4235.79405747 BTC ($114,962,500) and has sent a total of 4235.79087540 BTC ($114,962,414) The current value of this address is 0.00318207 BTC ($86.36).
  • BTC Wallet: bc1qgyaj300v3f866ws0qlhzp8msxkejvxafvl6ve3: This address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.34934714 BTC ($9,480.75) and has sent a total of 0.34934714 BTC ($9,480.75) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet: 16P7ZniAZUjqHhLhc6vDn7S2Ucx2rqxzGt: This address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.02758384 BTC ($748.58) and has sent a total of 0.02758384 BTC ($748.58) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00)
  • BTC Wallet: 35rB9CTbqGMyJoxTbwdHbHbJHE4s9wHYpt: This address is associated with Anon, and the address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.02269280 BTC ($615.85) and has sent a total of 0.02269280 BTC ($615.85) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00)

6. Between 13th October 2020 to 10th march, 2021, the End Sars donation BTC wallet 1CWdxSTKang1toEv2an1AY3z8cuwiapyno sent out BTC to the two Kraken wallet addresses listed below.

  • BTC Wallet 1: 3QsWUPfHUHaoSjp8MsdKwLYxQ51xpy78qh: This address is associated with Kraken, and the address has transacted 2 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 0.90831937 BTC ($24,139.88) and has sent a total of 0.90831937 BTC ($24,139.88) The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00).
  • BTC Wallet 2: 3NjuiUamA9uduH3uJbTLWR8vyHqVQnsiP2: This address is associated with Kraken, and it has transacted 4 times on the Bitcoin blockchain. It has received a total of 2.55000000 BTC $69,222.84 and has sent a total of 2.55000000 BTC $69,222.84 The current value of this address is 0.00000000 BTC $0.0)

I also made the full analysis on the #EndSars protest donation wallet available in PDF format. You can DOWNLOAN it here!

Thank so much for your time…

In case you are curious to know about me, you can read more about me via About Taiwo

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Taiwo Owolabi
Taiwo Owolabi

Written by Taiwo Owolabi

Fraud and Cybersecurity Analyst

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