Nigerian model Victoria Chiamaka Udeh held a red-stained Nigeria flag during her catwalk in the Miss Africa Russia beauty pageant in Russia. Udeh’s action was to remind people of the lives that were lost during the #EndSars protests in Nigeria in 2020. “I just wanted to portray and create awareness on what happened on the 20th of October 2020″, said Udeh.

Udeh, 23, is a Nigerian student and model. “I felt like ‘right now I don’t care about what the judges think about what I’m doing’”, said Udeh. “What mattered to me was using the platform that Miss Africa Russia had given me to pass a message”, reported CNN.

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The event took place on June 13 and a video showing Udeh holding the red-stained flag surfaced on social media platforms. She was also dressed in Nigeria’s white and green colours. She said that the banner connoted the young protesters who lost their lives in 2020. “I went into the competition to win. I wanted to win”, said Udeh. “But getting to Moscow … winning didn’t matter to me anymore”.

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“I just wanted to portray and create awareness on what happened on the 20th of October 2020, and the recent insecurity situation in Nigeria”, added Udeh. A judicial panel have begun investigating reports of police brutality during the protest.

“At that time, I wasn’t comfortable with my skin because I had a lot of acne all over my face. So, I wanted to prove to myself and people like me that I can break beauty stereotypes and that the flaws on my skin are part of what makes me perfect”, Udeh told CNN.