DESMOND UTOMWEN/Abuja

 Until Saturday 5 December, 2009, the parents of six students that were killed by police in Ekpoma had high hope. This was fired largely by the expectation that their children, student of the Ambrose Ali University in Ekpoma, Edo State were displaying promising signs. With the graduation of the children from the institution fast approaching, the parents were optimistic that the feat of their children would further bring glory to their various families. But this was not to be. Shortly after their exams on that Saturday, the students, who were said to be basking in the euphoria of the successful completion of their exams were relishing the moment as neighbours in the premise of their rented apartment when they was shot dead. Some plain cloth gun trotting men barged into the premise. They attempted to take some of the neighbours away who resisted the move. This attracted interventions from the students other neighbours and bystanders. But the gun carrying men, who were later discovered to be police officers from the Police station in Ekpoma would rather not want to be “stampeded”. Sources said that the shot sporadically killing six students. The corpses, later branded as deadly armed robbers were immediately shipped in a van and taken to unknown location. The students killed are Churchill Haruna, Joseph aka Amani and three others.

TheNEWS however, gathered that contrary to the claims of the police that the students were robbers, the raid was actually prompted by a report made by another student, Valentine Erhua of the Engineering Department in a bid to get back at a member of a splinter group in the Buccaneer Confraternity existing in the school. Valentine, a sit tight leader of the cult group, it was gathered had attempted to use his network in the police to bring the factional group leader to the station and consequently have the police help him subdue him from leading others to resist his sit tight agenda as the Capone of the cult group. When the police turned the move into a killing spree, Valentine, it was gathered handed himself back to the police demanding that they should kill him as well. His regret is that what was intended to be a strategic move to peaceful settlement was turned into a massacre by the police who unfortunately now claim that the victims were armed robbers.

But the pains of the bereaved parents do not seem to be ending with the cold blood murder of their children. Last Monday, 14 December, the families were again subjected to another round of psychological trauma. About nine of the relatives of the deceased among whom were Emike, Margaret and Sadik who, in search of the where about of the corpses of their brothers killed by the police were brutalised, arrested and detained for over 24 hours before they were granted bail after series of interventions. Their offence according to the police was that they sought to retrieve the corpses of “robbers”. This magazine gathered from eyewitnesses that after receiving so much torture in Ekpoma, the concerned relatives were tied up, bundled into a van and taken the State Criminal Investigation Department in Benin, the Edo state capital.

Indiscriminate killings and brutality by police has become a common thing lately. It is actually rising in geometric progression. The act recently attracted the condemnation of the Amnesty International group. In the report recently released by the group in Abuja, AI said Police in Nigeria carry out hundreds of extra-judicial killings every year and only those who can afford to pay bribes can guarantee their safety from execution or torture. The report say Nigeria’s police force is poorly paid and trained, and short of essential tools including bulletproof vests, fuel, even paper and pens, Amnesty said. But there appears to be no shortage of the bullets its officers use to kill people they are supposed to protect, the report said.

The report is based on evidence given in interviews with relatives of people who were executed by the police or disappeared in police custody. Amnesty which also interviewed lawyers, judges, justice and health officials and local rights organisations during its investigation in 2007 and 2008 concluded that unlawful killings and enforced disappearances in Nigeria “are not random”. Maintaining that “In a country where bribes guarantee safety, those who cannot afford to pay are at risk of being shot or tortured to death”. Nigeria ranks low on the international corruption perception index and it is notorious for its high crime rate, especially armed robbery. “The police exploit public anger at the high crime rates in the country to justify their actions… They do not only shoot people, Amnesty International has recorded cases of suspects who were tortured to death while in detention,” it said. Police officials often claim that victims of extrajudicial executions were armed robbers killed in gun battles with the police or when they attempted to escape custody. The application of an order that allows a policeman to use lethal force in the face of threat to life has “resulted in numerous unlawful killings and facilitated extrajudicial executions…using it as a justification as well as cover-up,” the report said adding that “in practice, it lets the police get away with murder.”

Amnesty said that disregard for human rights is “prevalent” in the police and enforced disappearances in Nigeria are “rife”. Many of those who go missing have been extra judicially executed. Victims disappear before being brought to court.”

The report titled Nigeria Police “kill at will,” exposed the level of alleged extra-judicial killings by the police in the country. Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme, claimed that “the Nigerian Police are responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year.” According to him, “Police don’t only kill people by shooting them; they also torture them to death, often while they are in detention,” adding, that the police get away with these killings because “the majority of the cases go un-investigated and the police officers responsible go unpunished. The families of the victims usually get no justice or redress. Most never even find out what happened to their loved ones.” The report also stated that the Police frequently claim that the victims of shootings were “armed robbers” killed in “shoot-outs” with the police or while trying to escape from custody. “These claims are often highly implausible,” the organisation stated.

Lucy Freeman, Amnesty International’s Campaigner on Nigeria, was quoted as saying that “research into the report ran for a period of two years and state’s authorities such as the Nigeria Police Commission, the Ministry of Police Affairs and both the federal and states police command were involved.” On a definite figure for the casualties of extra-judicial killings Ms Freeman told NEXT that there was no definite figure available due to the lack of data in the country but she added that “official statistics of the police revealed that 857 people were shot in 2008 as armed robbers and only 57 were injured.” However, police figures which Amnesty described as “inaccurate and incomplete” a total of 3,014 “armed robbers” were killed in Nigeria between 2003 and 2008 while only 574 others were wounded within the same period. “With the alarming figure stated, it clearly shows that the police are shooting to kill, rather than apprehending criminals to face the law,” she added.

The AI report opined that the dastardly acts of the police is regrettably given a semblance of legal backing by some draconian provisions in the country’s law book. For example some police officers hide under the provision of Order 237, which allows police officers to shoot suspects and detainees who attempt to escape or avoid arrest-whether or not they pose a threat to life to justify the extra-judicial killing of “armed robbers”. “Force Order 237 is so impermissibly broad. It simply gives police officers permission to shoot people. It is against international standards, and is being abused by police officers to commit, justify and cover up illegal killings,” said Mr. van der Borght, while advising that “the government must repeal Force Order 237 and publicly announce that the use of lethal force is only allowed when strictly unavoidable to protect life,” the body demanded, suggesting that “this could make a big difference to the number of unlawful police killings we are seeing in Nigeria.”

As noted by Amnesty, the indifference posture of the government and its failure to prosecute offensive police officers leaves people with the impressing that they condone extrajudicial killings. “They are not doing enough to stop them and bring the police perpetrators to justice. It also stated that “over the past four years, the Nigerian government has set up two committees to review the Nigeria Police Force and present recommendations for reform but their recommendations have never been implemented.” Mr. Van der Borght, who proffers a recipe for the containment of the scourge, said that “ending unlawful killings and enforced disappearances by the police will require serious legal reform and commitment and support. The Nigerian Police Force must introduce a new code of conduct throughout its chain of command – from the very top to the bottom. If not, the cycle of violence will simply continue.” He however noted that “Policing in Nigeria is a dangerous work” acknowledging that the Nigerian Police Force is confronted by a myriad of snags ranging from “severe shortage of funds and officers lack basic equipments, with the police sometimes, asking crime victims to pay for the petrol, pens and paper needed to conduct an investigation.” It concluded that the police “has limited capacity for intelligence and scientific investigations” noting that lack of independence and impartiality by police investigators and weak oversight mechanism by the police high command is clog to the attainment of civilized policing.

The national police however rejected the findings. The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu argued that “it is quite obvious that the mission is to kill the Nigerian police, wipe out our record, and bury our aspirations. Amnesty International has an unholy penchant to denigrate police organisations in most parts of the world.” Ojukwu further stated that police had already begun investigation into the allegations in the report. “Let the public be assured that the Nigerian police force does not consort with murderers in uniform. Any officer found to have violated the rules guiding use of firearms, treatment of persons in custody, torture, bail etc will be appropriately sanctioned in accordance with the law. There is no immunity for those who operate with impunity,” he said.

The Amnesty International report is coming on the heels of a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which claimed that the force had dumped the corpses of killed suspects at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, thus overwhelming the morgue. As reported by the BBC, The Chief Medical Director at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu says his staffs are being forced to carry out mass burials of between 70 and 80 bodies some weeks ago. He says that another mass burial is planned to take place soon.

The BBC which visited the morgue described the images as disturbing. “They show piles of young men, lying on top of one another and strewn about on tables and floors. In places the corpses are stacked four or five deep. The report of the broadcasting corporation stated that records available to it showed that 75 corpses were delivered to the morgue by police between June and 26 November this year. The BBC has established that at least seven of those in the morgue were arrested and last seen alive in police custody, accused of kidnapping in early September. But their names appear in the morgue register – on 15 and 16 of September. Police Commissioner Mohammed Zarewa feigned ignorant of the number of young men lying dead in the morgue.

Indeed, cases of extra-judicial killings and brutality carried out with impunity by the police abound.. Findings in the AI report was illustrated with 29 cases of victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions who had never appeared before a judge,” said the report.

It cited the case of a 15 years old Emmanuel Egbo, killed by a police officer in Enugu in September 2008. Quoting eyewitnesses, AI said the boy was playing with other children in front of his uncle’s house when three police officers came up to them. One officer pulled out a gun and shot the boy, claiming he was an armed robber. He was unarmed. In August 2009, his family discovered his body had disappeared from mortuary. As of November 2009, the body is still missing.” The report said.

Lawyer Vincent E. Obetta said he witnessed one of several police killings detailed in the report by the London-based rights group. Obetta told the AP that he was on his way to the city of Enugu on May 15 when he reached a police roadblock, where he saw three heavily armed policemen talking to a motorcyclist. “Next thing, one police inspector pulled his pistol and fired a shot directly into the cyclist,” he said. Obetta then watched as the policeman pressed his gun against the man’s bloody chest. “That’s when it dawned on me that the policeman was trying to build a defense as to why the cyclist was killed,” he said. While the victim lay bleeding, Obetta argued with the officer to move his gun. The officers threatened to shoot him if he did not stop causing trouble. Eventually, the officer moved his gun and they drove the victim, 39-year-old Aneke Okorie, to a nearby hospital. He died en route. At the local police post, an angry crowd gathered as police tried to explain that the motorcyclist was with two other men who accosted the inspector and tried to snatch his gun.

When it looked like the mob was going to attack, a police officer not involved in the incident asked Obetta to try to calm them down. But as he rose to address the crowd, the police fired two teargas canisters at him. Obetta, convinced they were trying to kill him too, rolled into a gutter, abandoned his car and cell phone and walked to Enugu. There, he told his story to a police commissioner, whom he praised for being instrumental in ensuring justice was done. The inspector who shot Okorie was brought before a martial court and dismissed from his job after he was convicted of setting up an illegal roadblock and illegally using his service weapon to kill a civilian. He is in jail awaiting a civilian trial for murder. Obetta has devoted himself to changing the system, and has done studies that showed most killings are committed by lower-ranking officers who are poorly trained and have low living standards. Drug and alcohol abuse are a problem, Obetta said. “They need advocacy training to understand that human rights are sacrosanct and that people should be treated like human beings,” Obetta said. “The problem we have in Nigeria is we just blame, blame, blame, with no solution. My major job now is to see how I can help to reform the police.”

In June 2009, the organization said it visited the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) detention centre in Abuja, which is located in a disused abattoir outside the city. Suspects are held in a vast warehouse previously used for slaughtering cattle. Chains are still hanging from the ceiling. When Amnesty International delegates visited the building, about 15 people were held in cells. Amnesty International delegates counted at least 30 empty bullet cases scattered on the ground. Unofficially, a policeman told Amnesty International that many “armed robbers” are taken there and shot.

On 1 October, three young men, Friday Uti, Ibrahim Olojede and Rotimi Philips were shot by trigger happy policemen in Yaba, Lagos. The deceased were shot while in a car by a police officer on Olonode Street, Alagomeji, Yaba. Although the police is foot dragging in giving the name of the officer who pulled the trigger that killed the three men but the residents of Alagomeji have however identified the officer as Corporal Abu Bolaji from the Yaba police station. While Mr. Olojede died at the scene of the shooting and Mr. Philips died two days later after surgery at Ikeja General Hospital. Friday Uti also managed to make to the Hospital eventually died on Sunday, 18 October, following a surgery at the Ikeja General Hospital to remove a bullet that was lodged in his spinal cord. Frank Mba, Police spokesperson, said the police are investigating the case. “The officer who pulled the trigger against these people has been dismissed and he is facing multiple charges of murder,” he said.

In many instances, the police have to blatantly lie to either cover up their evil deeds or deliberately misinform the public to claim innocent of the horrendous crime. In one of such cases, which resulted from the killing of the late Senior Manager, Relationship Team Leader, National Corporate Banking Directorate of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Modebayo Awosika, the police claimed that the banker died in an accident on 1 October, 2008, while on his way home.

Contrary to this claim however, a corona inquest conducted under the new Lagos State Coroner Systems Law 2007 held the Nigerian Police responsible for the brutal killing of a Nigerian, Mr. Modebayo Awosika. The court presided over by Chief Magistrate Philips Ojo sitting at Tapa Magistracy, while concluding an inquest to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of the deceased, held that the shooting of Awosika showed a callous, unprovoked and unjustifiable shooting of a defenceless Nigerian by a police officer. Ojo held that the late Awosika was shot by one Inspector Benjamin Oyigie, adding that it was a clear case of homicide. He said the fact that the deceased rammed into a police vehicle and failed to stop does not justify the killing. He urged the Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command to place advertisement declaring, Benjamin Oyigie, the deceased killer, wanted as well as reopen investigations into the matter.  ”The evidence before me clearly established that the lives of the policemen on duty on the morning of October 2, 2008 were not in danger. Evidence before me shows a callous, unprovoked and unjustifiable shooting of defenceless Nigerian by a Nigerian police officer. I agree with conclusion by the pathologist and also from the totality of evidence before me hold that the deceased, Modebayo Awosika died of cerebral disruption with hemorrhage arising from gunshot injury,” he said.

In his testimony, Prof. Fafunwa who conducted the inquest revealed to a coroner that the banker died of gunshot wounds. The inquest was ordered by the Lagos state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Olasupo Shasore, SAN, following outcry by the family of the deceased that the police did not tell the truth about the death of their son. Shasore had, in a letter dated 30 December, 2008, said Awosika’s death had occurred in violent, suspicious and controversial circumstances.

The deceased was alleged to have been returning home on the night of 30 September, 2008, in a Kia Optima car registered GG 529 AAA, when he was killed. He was said to have been stopped by armed policemen at Lekki roundabout in Lagos, and was found dead the following day, 1 October. Testifying as the first witness in the matter, Fafunwa told the court that on examination of Awosika’s corpse, there was a slight distortion of the shape of Awosika’s skull with a wound around his forehead. ”Internal examination of the skull showed that something had passed through it.” There was also a wound behind the left ear, which gave an appearance of an exit wound, an indication that the missile would have come out of there. ”In addition, I observed several fractures in the skull and bleeding beneath the brain, as well as bleeding into the substance of the brain,’’ he said, adding that the report he got as to what led to the death of Awosika did not correspond with what he found out in the autopsy he carried out.” The report by the police was that the deceased died as a result of an accident while trying to escape from the police at Lekki roundabout. That his car somersaulted several times and went into flames,” he added.

The late Awosika’s elder brother, Abiodun, had raised suspicion about his brother’s gruesome death, arguing that the police lied by saying that he died in an accident. According to Abiodun, it was mind boggling to see his late brother’s car parked about 300 metres away from the scene of the alleged accident. “The police alleged that he ran onto their van and somersaulted at the Lekki first junction, but there was no evidence that such a thing happened, as my brother’s car couldn’t have run into them and somersaulted across such a wide roundabout to stand as a neatly parked car, 300 metres from the alleged scene of the accident, before exploding into flames,” On examination of the corpse of his brother, Abiodun said there was no indication that the deceased was involved in an accident, as there was no scratch or bruise on his body, save the bullet holes in his head. It was as if he was the victim of a hideous attack. Everyone who saw the body agreed so. His shirt was torn and taken off his body, likewise his pants, shoes, and other articles of clothing” he added.

In April, last year a similar coroner court sitting in Ikeja equally held the police responsible for the death of a herbalist, Mr. Samson Adekoya. It indicted one Inspector John Sawyer of the State Police Command for death of Adekoya and therefore ordered his arrest and prosecution for his failure to notify the authorities of the death of the deceased.

Few days after Adekoya was arrested and taken into custody over alleged conspiracy to commit armed robbery, he was reported dead. On inquiry by his family as to the cause of his death and the location of his corpse, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Sergeant Yakubu Adeniyi, informed the family that the deceased was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja over an ailment that could neither be named nor described. He further advised the family not to bother searching for his corpse as their efforts will be a futile exercise. When the search for the deceased’s corpse at the LASUTH Emergency Ward and morgue by the family and a civil society organisation (CSO), Access to Justice proved futile as predicted by the IPO, Access to Justice instituted coroner inquest proceedings under the new Coroners System Law of Lagos State, 2007, before the Ikeja District Coroner, Mrs. Ipaye-Nwachukwu at Magistrate Court 23, Ikeja. At the inquest, the SARS Police officers changed their story. They abandoned their earlier account where they had claimed that the deceased took ill in custody and died at the LASUTH, and was later kept in preservative custody at the LASUTH morgue. During the inquest, they claimed that the deceased developed sudden epileptic feat while they (the police) were taking him to Ikorodu for further investigation. They claim he died at the premises of the Ikorodu General Hospital for lack of timely medical attention.

But contrary to their claims, the Deputy Medical Director of Ikorodu General Hospital, Dr. Mobolaji Olukoya, confirmed that the deceased was brought into the hospital dead at about 3.25 am on February 12, 2008. Olukoya tendered the “Extract from Police Crime Diary” dated February 11, 2008 (prepared by Inspector Sawyer) which remarkably indicated that the deceased died some seven hours before he was taken to Ikorodu General Hospital as corpse. Adekoya, the inquest established, died in police custody few days after he was arrested over alleged conspiracy to commit armed robbery as well as premeditated attempt to conceal his death. The inquest concluded that the police have a case to answer and noted that the testimony of the police and that of Dr. Olukoya did not tally. Yet, there are many more. In most cases, victims of police brutality and extra-judicial killings were randomly arrested on flimsy excuses. While some are arrested and detained indefinitely for “wandering” in their own neighbourhood many others innocent people are reportedly shot and killed for refusing to give them bribe as little as N20 or N50.

Extra judicial killing by police are carried out in different style and manner. ThisDay recorded that there are also chilling stories of “midnight-interrogations” by the police, where they illegally terminate the lives of persons detained in their custodial facilities. Reports from ex-inmates of SARS (Monitoring Unit) Cell, narrated the practice of calling out specific inmates at about midnight for interrogation. Investigation revealed that many of those called-out for interrogation never returned to the cell. In 2005, TheNEWS Magazine reported one of such cases. On 22 December 2005, Anthony Arinze Ozoezi, 38 was brutally murdered by Police. His alleged offence was walling in the cell, pleading that he should be freed to go and see his pregnant wife. But Ozoezi’s wails attracted no pity from his arresters at the People’s club police Station. Ozoezi was dragged out of the cell and never returned. “Because of his insistence, some policemen came and dragged him out and he never returned,” said an eyewitness, Alex obi. A few minutes after, gunshots rang out and a policeman was heard saying: “ya kare” (it is finished). After the incident, all the detainees in the cell were released. As it was gathered, Ozoezi was arrested, the same day he was shot, by some policemen while returning from a wedding ceremony. On arrest, he made a phone call to a relation, explaining that he was being taken to the Peoples Club Police Station for refusing to give them a bribe.

Four years ago, on 8 June, Nigerians woke up to the news of the killing of five young men and a woman by policemen in the Apo District of Abuja. The police in Abuja led by DCP Danjuma Ibrahim, in what is now referred to as “Apo Six,” branded five Igbo traders and their female friend as armed robbers and killed then extra-judicially in a most brutal manner. A Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Goodluck Olasumbo which later looked into the case found the force establishment and officers led by culpable for the tragic incident. The victims include Anthony Nwokike, Chinedu meniru, Ifeanyi Ozo and Isaac Ekene. Paul Ogbonna was said to have died later from wounds secured from the super cop’s assault on the spare part dealers while their female companion. Tina Arebun, Was finished off by another policeman, Ezekiel in an apparent bid to cover up their deed without a trace of evidence. Yet, Former senate president and vice presidential candidate in the April 19, 2003, election, Chuba Okadigbo, would go down as the most prominent victim of Ibrahim. Okadigbo along with other leaders of the All Nigeria Peoples party, ANPP, including the presidential candidate of the party, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, had organized a rally in Kano to protest the massive rigging that characterized the presidential election. The police detachment despatched to stop the rally was headed by Ibrahim. Poisonous tear gas was allegedly used by Ibrahim’s men on politicians. Okadigbo never lived to recount his experience as he died three days later from complications believed to have resulted from the poisonous teargas he inhaled.

On 1 October this year, Chief Michael Atuora the Ogazi I of Nise in Awka South L.G.A of Anambra State and the Managing Director of Barrywhite Furniture Limited and sergeant Harrison Ajayi Aigbobo were brutally murdered by police inspector Tahiru ali, attached to Abuja municipal area council, inspector Habila Maikefi said to be attached to the office of the inspector general of police, and constable Solomon Maikefi, attached to 44 PMF force headquarters Abuja at “Spotless Bar” located at Nyanya, Abuja. The offence of the deceased was that their cars were wrongly parked.

The list of victims of this hideous crime by the Police seems inexhaustible. There are the cases of Otenkwa Dele Udoh, a Nigerian star athlete preparing for international competition was shot death by a mobile policeman at Ojuelegba, a stone thro from the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, Ijeoma Udebiuwa, an undergraduate of the University of Nigeria, UNN, Nsukka, whose father was a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service was murdered right before her friend at night in Nsukka. Colonel Rindam of the Nigeria Army was shot in Lagos just like Dr. Nwogu Okere, a media consultant. In the same vein, in May 1998, Samuel Chiagozie Obasi, was murdered at Opebi, Lagos on his thirtieth birthday as he was seeing off his sibling and cousins who had come to celebrate with him. Venue of the get together was his cousin Chris Nwosu’s (Later Managing Director of the defunct Universe & Trust Bank, UTB, residence on Salvation road, Opebi Ikeja-Lagos. His offence was that the celebrant pleaded ‘with stop and search policemen who were barking at his guests to take it easy. Ken Niweigha, a militant leader was killed within twenty-four hours in controversial circumstances. He was the alleged mastermind of the killings of twelve policemen, which eventually led to the Odi invasion in 1999. The police paraded him before journalists. He was also accused of trying to kill the Bayelsa state commissioner of Police, Mr. Onuoha Udeka and a team of policemen, coming back from Odi.

There are other records of thousands of unresolved cases of extra judicial killings by men and officers of the Nigeria Police and the most worrisome part of it is that the perpetrators are allegedly protected to continue in their heinousness. There is also the case involving one Osondu Obiajulu and his seven-month old son, Chukwudi. The pathetic and harrowing experience of Obiajulu and his infant son occurred at No ‘52 Makoko Road, Yaba, Lagos when a team of mobile policemen who were on the trail of prostitutes in the area, opened fire indiscriminately within the precincts of the Obiajulu’s residence. After the random explosions from their rifles, Obiajulu’s wife, Juliana who was dressing up after a bath in their one room apartment slumped on the bed, bleeding profusely from a bullet wound which tore through her jaw to her brain. Following alarm raised by Osondu and his neighbours, the culprit police officers took to their heels. In the aftermath of inquiries and apprehension of the culprit, (one Sergeant Matthew Morontonu), events following his arraignment under a criminal charge at the Yaba Magistrate Court proved to be a mockery of Nigeria’s criminal justice system. In what appeared like a deliberate frustration of the case by police authorities, both the suspect (Sgt Morontonu) and the IPO were transferred out of Lagos State. While the police prosecution at the court tardily allowed the case file to slip out of the court’s dockets. Obiajulu haplessly backed-off from the matter after three years of fruitless attempts at securing the prosecution of his late wife’s killer. Yusuf Mohammed, the leader of the Boko Haram uprising in July was also controversially killed after he was initially subdued and arrested during the fracas.

Recently, the Police Affairs Minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Lame while speaking at a seminar entitled “Behavioural Changes: The Police and the Emerging Nigerian Society,” in Ilorin, Kwara State, said in order to stem the tide of fatal incidents resulting from accidental discharge of firearms by police officers in the course of their duties, anyone seeking to join the force will henceforth undergo psychiatric test before being recruited.

Yet the Amnesty report is not the first damning report on the barbaric acts by the police in the country. In 2005, the Human Right Watch also released its findings on the inhuman acts of police against innocent and helpless citizens in the country. In its 76 pages report titled: “Rest in Pieces”, the HRW stated that despite reforms, the police routinely practice torture leaving numerous deaths in their custody. The report opined that

Since the end of military rule in 1999, the government has moved to take an increasingly influential position in Africa. Heralded on the international stage for his efforts to broker peace in regional conflicts, the government has taken some important steps to combat corruption and introduce economic reforms in Nigeria. The organisation further stated that the Government has not shown the same commitment to addressing human rights abuses, in particular widespread and persistent violations perpetrated by the security forces, most notably the police, military and other law enforcement agencies against persons they detain.. It stated that despite national and international law prohibiting the use of torture, a Human Rights Watch investigation in Nigeria in March 2005 found the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by the Nigerian Police Force to be widespread and routine. The organization stated that its investigation revealed that “the violations were perpetrated by and with the knowledge of senior police officers, including inspectors, divisional police officers, a deputy superintendent of police and a chief superintendent of police. So routine is the practice, that some of these senior officers are known within the police stations by the nickname “Officer in Charge Torture.”

The abuse that Human Rights Watch documented is carried out in local and state police stations, often in interrogation rooms which witnesses and victims said appeared to be especially equipped for the purpose. Victims and witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the forms of torture and other ill-treatment committed by the Nigerian police included the tying of arms and legs tightly behind the body, suspension by hands and legs from the ceiling or a pole, repeated and severe beatings with metal or wooden objects (including planks of wood, iron bars, and cable wire), resting of concrete blocks on the arms and back while suspended, spraying of tear gas in the face and eyes, rape of and other sexual violence against female detainees, use of pliers or electric shocks on the penis, shooting in the foot or leg, stoning, death threats, slapping and kicking with hands and boots and denial of food and water. The Right group stated that in the context of the research, it came across many other allegations of serious violations by the police, including extortion, arbitrary arrest, excessive periods of pre-trial detention, and extra-judicial executions, illustrating the deep-rooted problems that exist within the police and judicial system in the country.

It added that for decades, the police have betrayed their responsibility to protect Nigerian citizens and have instead preyed on them for economic gain. Indeed, the relationship between citizens and the police is very often characterized by brutality, confrontation and exploitation. Research conducted in 2000 by the Centre for Law Enforcement and Education (CLEEN), a Lagos based NGO, found that the use of violence by the police against citizens in Nigeria was widespread. Of 637 respondents to a survey carried out in fourteen states, 14.8 percent said they had been beaten by the police, 22.5 percent said police had threatened to shoot them in the past, and 73.2 percent said they had witnessed the police beating another person. A sample of 197 prison inmates, revealed higher figures of police abuse; 81 percent of respondents said they had been beaten or slapped and 39 percent burnt with hot objects.

The organisation noted that Patterns of police killings and excessive use of force include circumstances in which police obliged motorists stop at checkpoints and then shot those who refuse to pay bribes of as little as twenty naira (US$ 0.15).  For the average Nigerian, encounters with the police are negative and public confidence in the force is extremely low.

The Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to life and the right to respect for dignity of the person including the right not to be subjected to torture. International conventions ratified by Nigeria, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations (U.N.) Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, also prohibit the use of torture. As defined in the U.N. Convention, Torture involves a number of key elements. It is an act by which severe mental or physical pain or suffering is intentionally inflicted against an individual, at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official. The purpose of which is to obtain information, or a confession, or punishment for an act the individual has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidation, coercion, or discrimination of any kind. A person may be tortured as punishment for an act committed, or suspected of being committed, by a third person. Despite these commitments and obligations by the Government of Nigeria, Human Rights Watch’s research shows a clear pattern of widespread torture of suspects in police custody, sometimes resulting in the victim’s death.

The problem is further made worse by the twin problem of the criminal justice system in the country and the high level of docility among the people. “The criminal justice system in Nigeria is in a state of paralysis, effectively unable to dispense justice in a fair and speedy manner. Every aspect of the system, from law enforcement to the judiciary, through to the prisons is characterized by a combination of inefficiency, corruption and lack of resources. Impunity is one of the biggest single obstacles to the reduction or eradication of torture and other serious abuses by police in Nigeria. The fact that in all but a handful of largely symbolic cases there has been no effort to ensure accountability for violations committed emboldens the perpetrators and has perpetuated the culture of violence in the Nigerian Police Force.” The organisation added that “one of the most challenging obstacles to the eradication of torture is the deeply engrained societal attitude to violence and the powers of the police. For many Nigerians, who have experienced years of oppression and brutality by military rulers, the use of violence by the institutions of the state is accepted, even seen as normal. Even where they know the police action was wrong and illegal, they appear to feel powerless to register a complaint or seek redress.” Human Right Watch said.

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