Police use torture to extract confession from suspects –Amnesty
Amnesty International has challenged the Federal Government to
criminalise the use of torture by the Police and military as a tool of
investigations.
The movement stated that the
military had detained, at least, 5,000 persons for terrorism since 2009
when military operations began against Boko Haram, many of whom, it
alleged, were tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
The police and the
military routinely torture women, men and children – some as young as 12
– using a wide range of methods, including beatings, shootings and
rape, Amnesty International said in the 2014 report presented to
journalists on Thursday in Abuja.
The AI Research and Advocacy
Director, Netsatmet Belay, who presented the report titled, “Welcome to
hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria,” said AI would
continue to engage the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights to
investigate cases of torture by the police and the military in Nigeria.
Compiled from interviews and testimonies of 500 torture survivors and
evidence gathered over 10 years, the report exposes the alleged use of
police torture chambers and routine abuses by the military in the
country.
It also reveals how most of those detained are held
incommunicado and denied access to the outside world, including lawyers,
families and courts.
Belay flayed the Nigerian judicial system for
failing to prevent torture and other ill-treatment, noting that human
rights violations are routine and common in the country particularly in
police stations and military detention facilities.
The AI noted that
although Nigeria prohibited torture and other ill-treatment in its
constitution and had signed numerous international human rights
protocols banning the violation, authorities continue to turn a blind
eye to torture and have not made the violation a criminal offence.
Belay said, “Torture is not a criminal offence in Nigeria, despite such
acts being constitutionally prohibited. A law criminalising torture is
yet to be passed even though two different bills have been pending in
the National Assembly for two years.
“In line with their obligations
under international human rights law, the Nigerian authorities must
take all necessary steps to ensure that no detainee is subject to
torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by members of the
security forces. The government should, therefore, criminalise torture
by the Police and the military.”
The AI director challenged the FG
to demonstrate total opposition to torture and ill-treatment and
publicly condemn such practices whenever they occur.
A victim of
torture, Justice Nwanwko, a hotel manager, who was arrested in Onitsha,
on July 31, 2013, over the discovery of two human skulls and an AK 47
rifle in a room in the hotel, narrated how he was beaten and hanged “on a
rope like a barbecue” by men of the Special Anti-roberry Squad, Akwuzu,
Anambra State.
Nwanwko explained that he was detained in a dark
cell for 36 days along with a director of the hotel. He was subsequently
arraigned in court for the murder of one Nnamdi Okafor, who he said was
killed in custody by the Police.
9/19/2014
Police use torture to extract confession from suspects –Amnesty
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