Nigeria returned to democratic rule on May 29, 1999, after more than one and a half decade of military decadence. Prior to the advent of the new democratic setting, the enslaved called Nigeria witnessed and avalanche of corruption in high and low places, depreciation of time-honoured values, senseless and directionless leadership, massive crackdown of civil and environmental activists, and an unprecedented orchestration of extra-judicial killings by agents of the Military Junta, including the Nigerian police.
With the arrival of democratic rule, one could have convincingly heaved a sigh of relief from the military stranglehold. Unfortunately, the greatest dividend of democratic rule – the rule of law – continues to be a mirage. The Nigerian Police, especially the dreaded Mobile Police, have become seemingly uncontrollable in the twin acts of brutality and murder. This is embarrassing to a force, whose constitutional responsibility is to protect lives and properties.
I could recall an incident that occurred few months ago, on my way back home from the office. I was in the staff bus when a body of a young man lying half dead soaked in blood caught my attention at the Oworonshoki bus stop in Lagos. I wondered; what could have happened to this man? Is he dead or not? He may be an armed robber, Only God knows what he must have done, all these were questions that came to my mind, so also other colleagues in the bus wondered. We left without finding out.
On the next day of the sad occurrence, a colleague who stopped at the Oworonshoki bus stop where the incident occurred, was able to gather information concerning the incident the previous day, that the man in question was beaten mercilessly and stabbed by a group of Mobile Police who claimed he hit their vehicle and never stopped, so he was trailed down and was caught at the Oworonshoki bus stop, where he was given a severe torture to the point of death. Imagine such brutality.
It is stunning that the Nigerian Police killed half as many ‘armed robbery suspects’ as they manage to arrest and it is scandalous that leading police officials seem to regard the routine killing of Nigerian citizens – criminal suspects or not – as a point of pride.
The police continue to execute suspects extra-judicially and torture widespread in police custody. Detention in police lock ups is intended to be for a short time. However, findings have it that Amnesty International heard from inmates who were held in police cells for protracted periods. One man responded, “I was supposed to stay there for 3 days but was held for 4 months. I was not given access to talk to my lawyer. There were a lot of intimidations”. Another told Amnesty International that “the State Criminal Investigation Department wanted to kill me, they beat me, they killed people beside me and shot some, so I confessed”. What do you have to say to this?
Nigeria’s police officers are poorly trained, ill equipped and poorly remunerated. Some human rights abuses carried out by the police are partly a response to public pressure to reduce the high level of violent crime. Nigerian Civil Society groups and Human Rights Watch’s own investigations have revealed that, the Nigerian police Force is lacking the means to carry out effective criminal investigations, some police officers extract confessions through torture, or murder suspects in their custody, who police believe to be guilty. Other cases represented a simple abuse of power targeting ordinary civilians.
Police officers, routinely label individuals they kill, as “armed robbers” who fired on police; according to police statistics, all of the thousands of individuals shot and killed by police officers were “armed robbers”. Credible government investigations into allegations of disproportionate use of force or murder have been extremely rare and the facts on the ground often belie the claims of police officials.
In a report replete with innumerable examples, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) reckons that innocent Nigerians are killed and maimed while errant policemen go unpunished. For instance, the Human Rights Organization said policemen from the Delta State Command beat one Mr. Peter Osimiri, a businessman, and left him dead in June last year when he refused to pay N20 bribe at a police check-point in Kwale. The policemen who committed the heinous offence, according to the CDHR, are yet to be brought to book.
Another instance is the case of one Mr. Abayomi Ogundeji, a Journalist, who was allegedly killed by the police last year in Lagos, and was presented as a robbery case. Also in June 2005, some unscrupulous police officers killed six Igbo traders in Apo, Abuja and labeled them armed robbers. It took a Judicial Panel of Inquiry by the Federal Government to bring the culprits to book after a panel by the police High Command had bugled the case. Reports have it that there have been numerous cases where the police torture and kill suspects in detention to destroy evidence, among other sinister reasons.
The Nigerian Police Force and the State Security Service (SSS) continue to commit human rights violations with impunity, including extra-judicial executions, which are a violation of the right to life, guaranteed in Article 33 of the Nigerian Constitution.
Nigeria of today could be likened to the cold war days. Justice is the most sought after but unfortunately, the scarcest commodity. There is need for the Nigerian Police Force to flush out the bad eggs within its rank and employ strategies to curb the malaise as well as reforming the orientation of the Nigerian Police for the better.
With the arrival of democratic rule, one could have convincingly heaved a sigh of relief from the military stranglehold. Unfortunately, the greatest dividend of democratic rule – the rule of law – continues to be a mirage. The Nigerian Police, especially the dreaded Mobile Police, have become seemingly uncontrollable in the twin acts of brutality and murder. This is embarrassing to a force, whose constitutional responsibility is to protect lives and properties.
I could recall an incident that occurred few months ago, on my way back home from the office. I was in the staff bus when a body of a young man lying half dead soaked in blood caught my attention at the Oworonshoki bus stop in Lagos. I wondered; what could have happened to this man? Is he dead or not? He may be an armed robber, Only God knows what he must have done, all these were questions that came to my mind, so also other colleagues in the bus wondered. We left without finding out.
On the next day of the sad occurrence, a colleague who stopped at the Oworonshoki bus stop where the incident occurred, was able to gather information concerning the incident the previous day, that the man in question was beaten mercilessly and stabbed by a group of Mobile Police who claimed he hit their vehicle and never stopped, so he was trailed down and was caught at the Oworonshoki bus stop, where he was given a severe torture to the point of death. Imagine such brutality.
It is stunning that the Nigerian Police killed half as many ‘armed robbery suspects’ as they manage to arrest and it is scandalous that leading police officials seem to regard the routine killing of Nigerian citizens – criminal suspects or not – as a point of pride.
The police continue to execute suspects extra-judicially and torture widespread in police custody. Detention in police lock ups is intended to be for a short time. However, findings have it that Amnesty International heard from inmates who were held in police cells for protracted periods. One man responded, “I was supposed to stay there for 3 days but was held for 4 months. I was not given access to talk to my lawyer. There were a lot of intimidations”. Another told Amnesty International that “the State Criminal Investigation Department wanted to kill me, they beat me, they killed people beside me and shot some, so I confessed”. What do you have to say to this?
Nigeria’s police officers are poorly trained, ill equipped and poorly remunerated. Some human rights abuses carried out by the police are partly a response to public pressure to reduce the high level of violent crime. Nigerian Civil Society groups and Human Rights Watch’s own investigations have revealed that, the Nigerian police Force is lacking the means to carry out effective criminal investigations, some police officers extract confessions through torture, or murder suspects in their custody, who police believe to be guilty. Other cases represented a simple abuse of power targeting ordinary civilians.
Police officers, routinely label individuals they kill, as “armed robbers” who fired on police; according to police statistics, all of the thousands of individuals shot and killed by police officers were “armed robbers”. Credible government investigations into allegations of disproportionate use of force or murder have been extremely rare and the facts on the ground often belie the claims of police officials.
In a report replete with innumerable examples, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) reckons that innocent Nigerians are killed and maimed while errant policemen go unpunished. For instance, the Human Rights Organization said policemen from the Delta State Command beat one Mr. Peter Osimiri, a businessman, and left him dead in June last year when he refused to pay N20 bribe at a police check-point in Kwale. The policemen who committed the heinous offence, according to the CDHR, are yet to be brought to book.
Another instance is the case of one Mr. Abayomi Ogundeji, a Journalist, who was allegedly killed by the police last year in Lagos, and was presented as a robbery case. Also in June 2005, some unscrupulous police officers killed six Igbo traders in Apo, Abuja and labeled them armed robbers. It took a Judicial Panel of Inquiry by the Federal Government to bring the culprits to book after a panel by the police High Command had bugled the case. Reports have it that there have been numerous cases where the police torture and kill suspects in detention to destroy evidence, among other sinister reasons.
The Nigerian Police Force and the State Security Service (SSS) continue to commit human rights violations with impunity, including extra-judicial executions, which are a violation of the right to life, guaranteed in Article 33 of the Nigerian Constitution.
Nigeria of today could be likened to the cold war days. Justice is the most sought after but unfortunately, the scarcest commodity. There is need for the Nigerian Police Force to flush out the bad eggs within its rank and employ strategies to curb the malaise as well as reforming the orientation of the Nigerian Police for the better.
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