Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (registered as NOPRIN FOUNDATION) is a network of 46 civil society organisations spread across Nigeria and committed to promoting police accountability and respect for human rights. It was established in 2000 to provide opportunity for civil society involvement in police reform and the enhancement of safety, security and justice.
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (registered as NOPRIN FOUNDATION) is a network of 46 civil society organisations spread across Nigeria and committed to promoting police accountability and respect for human rights. It was established in 2000 to provide opportunity for civil society involvement in police reform and the enhancement of safety, security and justice.
NOPRIN warmly welcomes you all to this Press Briefing.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
We have called this Press Conference to use your various media to express the serious concern of our network members over the increasing spates of police brutality and gross abuse of police powers across the country.
NOPRIN also wishes to use this occasion to once again, call the attention of the Nigerian Government to the need for it to demonstrate genuine commitment to ending impunity for police abuses. This it will do by ensuring effective investigation of, and punishment for, all cases of extrajudicial killing, torture and all unlawful and unprofessional exercise of police powers. Failure to ensure accountability for abuses sustains impunity just as failure to ensure redress denies justice to the victims.
We wish, by this media outreach- which will be periodical, to publicise cases of police brutality with the view of increasing public awareness on its prevalence, mobilising a sustainable public opinion against the culture of impunity and putting sustained pressure on the authorities to live up to their obligations under domestic and international laws to ensure observance, respect and protection of the human rights of citizens.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
NOPRIN is concerned that successive yearly reports by local and international human rights advocacy groups continue to return the same damning verdicts against the Nigeria police and other security forces for appalling human rights performance. According to a very recent Newspaper report, ‘Several reports by aggrieved individuals, corporate institutions and organizations have indicted the Police of brutality, extra-judicial killings, corruption, torture and unprofessional conduct...’
More worrisome is that perpetrators of human rights violations are hardly brought to account and impunity is entrenched. A culture of impunity protects police officers involved in police brutality, extrajudicial killings, corruption and abuse. The Nigerian government has repeatedly expressed willingness to address the problems in the criminal justice system, improve access to justice, and reform the Nigeria Police Force. However, despite several ‘Presidential Committees on Police Reform in Nigeria’ in recent years, which presented detailed recommendations for improvement, little has been done. Nigerian political authorities endanger public safety by paying lip service to police reform. The continued tolerance of massive human rights abuses by police hierarchy makes it very difficult to achieve change at the lower levels. This is why it is necessary to start changing the whole culture of policing in Nigeria.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and several other international organisations, foreign governments and intergovernmental agencies have consistently, in their annual reports on human rights, accused the Nigeria Police of being responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year. In its 2012 Annual Report on ‘The State of the World’s Human Rights’, Amnesty International stated that Nigeria’s human rights situation has continued to deteriorate.
According to the report, ‘there were consistent reports of Police routinely torturing suspects to extract information. Confessions extracted under torture were used as evidence in court, in violation of national and international laws.’
It further said that corruption remained endemic, while Police operations remained characterized by human rights violations.
Citing several instances, the report said: “Hundreds of people were unlawfully killed, often before or during arrests on the street. Others were tortured to death in Police detention. Many such unlawful killings may have constituted extrajudicial executions.
“Many people disappeared from Police custody. Few police officers were held accountable, leaving relatives of those killed or disappeared without justice.
“Police increasingly wore plain clothes or uniforms without identification, making it much harder for people to complain about individual officers. Special task forces, including the Special Anti Robbery Squads, SARS, committed a wide range of human rights violations.
“In early 2011, the Bayelsa state government set up Operation Fanou Tangbe — “kill and throw away” in the local language — to fight crime. Many officers linked to the operation reportedly unlawfully killed, tortured, arbitrarily arrested and detained people. Suspects in detention reportedly had no access to their lawyers or relatives.
Amnesty said the Police frequently disobeyed court orders.
NOPRIN’s recent investigations in various parts of the country corroborate Amnesty International’s findings and conclusions.
In furtherance of our project of monitoring, documenting and publicising cases of police brutality across Nigeria, NOPRIN recently carried our investigations into the activities of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, Awkuzu, Anambra State. The findings show appalling levels of human rights atrocities. NOPRIN interviewed several innocent victims of arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial killing and disappearance, extortion and frame up of people with the murder of those who were actually killed in SARS custody.
BONAVENTURE MOKWE AND OTHERS
The arrest of Chief Bonaventure Mokwe and others in Onitsha, Anambra State over allegations that later turned out to be spurious and framed up, and their detention and torture at SARS as a means of settling scores has exposed the atrocities going on at Awkuzu SARS. On 17-10-2013- after over 90 days in detention, SARS Awkuzu charged Chief Bonaventure Mokwe to Magistrate Court 11 Onitsha alongside Justin Nwankwo ‘m’ 52, Ikechukwu Uche 25 and Chibueze Ikemere (a.k.a. Flash) ‘M’ 34. They were arraigned on 4-count charges of conspiracy and murder, unlawful possession of two human heads and two AK 47 rifles with rounds of live ammunition. They were accused of ‘unlawful killing of one Nnalue Okafor ‘m’. However, investigations later revealed that Nnalue Okafor was arrested, detained and disappeared by the same SARS that accused, arrested, detained, tortured and later charged the accused persons with his murder. See Charge Sheet with No. MO/502c/201
Doctor’s report on one of the torture victims Chibueze Ikemere (a.k.a. Flash) ‘M’ 34
A Medical Report dated 21st October, 2013 issued on Ikemere Chibueze by the General Hospital Onitsha and signed by Dr. A. C. Nwafor, Chief medical Office, reads thus:
‘The above-named young man complained about severe chest pains, neck pains, hip pains and difficulty in breathing, walking and standing. He also complains of intermittent blood discharge from both ears.
He reported that all physical problems were a result of the severe beatings he received at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad base in Awkuzu where he was detained when he was arrested.
He said he received multiple battering with clubs, big sticks and slaps from the policemen who wanted to extract a forcible confession from him for an offence he knew he did not commit.
As time went on, he was allegedly tied on both anklets and suspended upside down on ropes tied to the ceiling. In that position he was given intermittent slaps such that he developed bloody boze from the ears and chest pain while breathing.
The clinical deductions are that this man now has serious lesions in the ears, chest and limbs. He risks losing his hearing and suffering Musculo-skeletal Disabilities if he is not urgently brought for proper treatment.
Community Protests to National Human Rights Commission.
In a letter dated 16th November, 2013 addressed to the Chairman, Police Service Commission by the kinsmen of Mr. Chibueze Ikemere, and jointly signed by his father, Mr. Christopher Ikemere and Ichie Godwin Emerole, the Chairman of Umudurueke Kindred Idem Village, Ogwa, Imo State, the community has protested the ‘Rapid Deteriorating Health of our son Mr. Chibueze Ikemere’ and asserted that they ‘will hold CSP James Nwafor, the O/C SARS Awkuzu responsible in the event of his death’.
The community also disowned any statement credited to Chibueze Ikemere in respect of Chief Bonaventure Mokwe’s Upper Class Hotel case.
The Case of Mr. Amobi Nzedigwe
NOPRIN also came across one Mr. Amobi Nzedigwe of Akamanator village Nando who was also framed up, arrested and tortured for the period of 4 months he was detained at SARS Awkuzu.
He presented NOPRIN with a written account of the circumstances of his arrest and the ordeal he suffered while in detention at SARS. He informed NOPRIN that his arrest was in connection with a community leadership tussle, which tore the community into two factions, each supporting a rival political group. He said a retired deputy commissioner of police from the community Mr. John Achum in the opposing group who had attempted- through persuasion and later threats, to bring him over to his own camp masterminded his arrest by framing up against him an allegation of kidnapping and murder of one Ifeanyi Nwabia. However, it was also- as in the Mokwe case, later discovered that Ifeanyi Nwabia actually died in the custody of SARS.
SARS had demanded 200 thousand naira from him to grant him bail before the case was transferred to Zone 9, Umuahia following a petition.
At Zone 9, the then Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge Tambari Yabo was able to establish through painstaking personal investigation that Mr. Amobi was framed up. He unravelled the role of officers at SARS in the frame up. He discovered that Ifeanyi Nwabia was actually killed in SARS custody. The AIG then summoned the O/C SARS, CSP James Nwafor to Zone 9 where, after attempts to cover up, the O/C SARS had not option than to admit that Ifeanyi Nwabia died in his custody. Explaining why he initially denied, he pretended to have known him by a different name.
Like Chief Mokwe, Chibueze Ikemere and others, Mr. Amobi was also severely tortured at SARS. The typical method of torture is that the victim’s ankles and hands are tied together and s/he is suspended upside down by a rope on a ceiling fan, beaten, and slapped. They also tie a rope on the victim’s neck and two police officers pull the ropes very tightly from two opposite ends choking/suffocating the victim until s/he faints.
Mr. Amobi said although he and a few others survived the torture, many others died in the course of it. Even among those who are lucky to still be alive, their lives have not remained the same again as they live with pains and gradual damage to their internal organs in the absence of urgent medical treatment, which many of them cannot afford.
On a particular day, I witnessed the execution of 14 suspects at SARS- Mokwe
SARS: ABOVE THE LAW?
The authorities and operatives at SARS Awkuzu operate as though they are above the law and beyond legal control and accountability. The failure by the Anambra state government to ensure investigation into allegations that SARS Awkuzu was responsible for the killing of the people whose dead bodies were found in Ezu River in 2013 is a clear case of abdication of constitutional responsibility.
SARS is a section of the Nigeria police under the Force Criminal Investigation Department and specifically charged 'to combat armed robbery and other heinous crimes nationwide.' But SARS in all parts of Nigeria have gained embarrassing notoriety tainting the image of the Nigerian Police locally and internationally, and should either be scrapped or comprehensively reformed to conform to modern standards of policing or human rights-compliant policing. SARS operatives are known for arresting people for all manner of alleged offences, torturing, extorting and executing suspects and detainees in their custody and secretly disposing of their dead bodies. They also dabble into civil disputes. The police in SARS, Awkuzu, Anambra and many other places in the country are being used by politicians and other influential persons to victimize their opponents or to settle disputes that are purely civil or communal.
The IGP is not unaware of this grave human rights challenge posed by SARS. Shortly after his appointment as Acting IGP, he was quoted in several news reports as lamenting that ‘Our Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) have become killer teams engaging in deals for land speculators and debts collection…' The IGP should, as a matter of urgency, re-organize SARS and the entire anti-robbery operations of the Nigeria police force, so as to insulate them from abuse of office.
MR. EZE OKORO, KILLED BY IKEJA SARS, LAGOS
On March 8, 2013 police officers from the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, without any provocation or justification, shot Mr. Eze Okoro at close range at the back, killing him instantly. The victim was killed near his residence at No. 1, Oguntolu Street, by Meiran Bus Stop, Alagbado.
Eyewitnesses in the residence informed NOPRIN that the policemen who perpetrated this atrocious act had spent 6 hours drinking at a nearby Olak’s Hotel close to the residence of the victim before they set out on the deadly operation that led to this senseless killing of an innocent family man.
NOPRIN confirmed that Mr. Eze Okoro returned home from business at about 8.00 pm on that fateful day, as was his daily routine. He took his bath, had dinner, and then went to sit out with his friend – Mr. Chinedu Nwaonu and his pregnant wife- to get some fresh air outside. He was only dressed in a pair of shorts and slippers, and hung his shirt on his shoulder. Then, suddenly they heard sporadic gunshots and the three of them- along with other frightened residents, ran for safety.
The pregnant woman fell down and was pleading with a policeman who accosted her that she was pregnant and a resident in the area. She told the policeman that she was with her husband pointing at him, and Mr. Okoro to get some fresh air outside since there was no light that night. The policemen left her and her husband to go. At the same time, another policeman had also accosted Mr. Eze who had his hands raised up and pleading that he was also a resident, pointing to his house. Suddenly, one of the policemen shot him at the back and he fell down bleeding profusely. The policemen bundled him into their vehicle and drove away.
The Manager of Olak’s Hotel popularly known as Alhaji informed the wife of the victim that the police only shot her husband in the leg and took him to an undisclosed hospital.
For three days, the family traversed several police stations trying to locate him. On Tuesday, March 12, the DCO Meiran Police Division, on the directives of the DPO, gave a note to the family to go to SARS, Ikeja- a second time, to inquire. They met the O/C SARS, Ikeja Mr. Abba Kyari and his 2i/c Mr. Peter who told them that they were sorry, ‘it was a case of mistaken identity’ and that Mr. Eze Okoro was ‘killed in error’.
On that same date, the self-same O/C SARS had issued a press statement and orchestrated media reports purporting that Mr. Eze Okoro was ‘hit by robbers’ bullet’ during a gun battle between the robbers and his ‘men’…
However, eyewitnesses have testified that there was no gun battle around the area Mr. Eze was killed. Mr Eze was neither armed nor posed any threat to the lives of the policemen or to any other person at the time he was killed.
One year after, the killer operatives are yet to be brought to account. The OC SARS, Ikeja after public denials and failed attempts at cover up, later invited the wife of the deceased privately and informed her that her husband was killed in error and offered her a paltry five hundred thousand naira as police’s contribution for the burial of her husband. The next time the woman went to see the police authorities in Lagos after her husband’s burial- and in keeping with her agreement with them, the woman was told off for causing the matter to be reported in the media. That was the end of the case.
AZEEZ OMOTOSHO KILLED IN LAGOS BY A DRUNKEN POLICE OFFICER
On Saturday, November 2, 2013 Azeez Omotosho, 35, a panel beater was unlawfully killed in Lagos state. The incident was said to have happened when Azeez, father of three, went to pick his family at the family house, situated at 28, Ama Street, Ladipo, Oshodi, where his wife also has a shop. As he got to the junction of the house, he saw his friend’s car parked by the side of the road, with some Policemen attached to Shogunle Divisional Headquarters standing beside it. He stopped to plead with the officers for his friend to be released, but an officer, identified as Corporal Gabriel, became angry and shot him at close range.
The deceased’s sister, Aishat Olaosebikan, said: “they shot him at about 8:55pm. He came down on his way home when he saw that the Police had arrested his friend’s car. The next thing Corporal Gabriel did was to raise his gun and shoot him two times at close range. Immediately he shot my brother, he escaped from the scene of the incident.”
The killer cop, who was later arrested and is now in detention, said: “I actually killed Azeez Omotosho, a.k.a panel. It was the Devil’s work, please, forgive me. I was not myself; I was drunk when I perpetrated the act”.
Corporal Gabriel was serving in Shogunle Divisional Headquarters, Oshodi Lagos. According to an eyewitness, “the killer cop usually operates illegally at night. Even when he is off duty, you will see him carrying gun about at night.”
ANAYO OPARA (28), ONITSHA, ANAMBRA STATE
In Onitsha, Anambra State on December 6, 2013 a police man killed a 28 year-old Anayo Opara at Habo Police Post, Atani Road by lifting him up and hitting his head on the ground. The young man became instantly paralysed and died the next day as no hospital in Onitsha could handle his case. The young man’s offence was that he went to the station to ask for bail for his elder brother Chizoba Opara (32) who was arrested and detained the previous day by the policeman known as Chijioke (also known as Prince) because his motorbike had no papers. The IPO demanded thirty thousand naira, which Anayo and Chizoba’s said they did not have. After pleading with the IPO to no avail, Anayo left the counter grudgingly. Feeling that Anayo had called his bluff, the IPO went after him, pulled him from behind by the belt, lifted him up and threw him down on his head and he lost consciousness. The killer policeman was arrested and – as at the last time NOPRIN spoke with the Anambra State Police PRO Emeka Chukwuemeka- detained at the Anambra State Police Headquarters awaiting orderly room trial. The case is also stalled because the family cannot afford the money demanded by the IPO Inspector Nwakonobi of the State CID Awka for autopsy.
BENSON EDEM, ABUJA
Mr. Benson Edema also brought to NOPRIN’s attention ‘the repeated abuse of police powers by the DPO Asokoro Police Station CSP Nnanna Amah and other officers acting at the instigation of Mrs Yemisi Kefas, a Deputy Director at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lagos Liaison Office’.
He informed NOPRIN that ‘In the last one month alone, members of my family, my officers and I have been subjected to repeated and increasing harassment and physical attacks by the DPO and some officers under him. Twice in one month, the DPO has used officers in and outside his Division to invade my residence, brutally assault me and members of my family, and in one occasion inflicted grievous bodily harm and injuries on two of my sons and officers whom they came across in the cause of invading my residence.
He said that ‘the activities of the DPO Asokoro Police Division, Mr. Nnanna Amah (CSP) were motivated, instigated and sponsored by Mrs. Yemisi Kefas’ and that ‘these renewed and unrelenting acts of instigated abuse of police powers, harassment, arrests and detention were in continuation of a longstanding plot by Mrs Kefas in her sworn determination to, by all means, frustrate and subdue me, criminalise the Nigerian Merchant Navy and undermine its establishment as a maritime safety and security organisation’.
SAMUEL IMAIKOP AND THREE OTHERS, BENIN
NOPRIN also received a complaint concerning the extrajudicial killing in Benin City, the Edo State capital of Mr. Samuel Imaikop (42), a farmer and three labourers he hired to work in his farm at Ute village in Edo State on November 24, 2013.
NOPRIN went on a fact finding mission and found that the police accosted them along the Benin Bye pass, murdered them in cold blood and branded them armed robbers. We now refer to this case as ‘the Ute 4’, reminiscent of the 2006 case of the ‘Apo 6’ in Abuja.
Despite widespread doubts about the police account of this tragic incident and the strident calls for proper investigation to determine the actual circumstances leading to the killing of ‘the Ute 4’, the Commissioner of Police, Edo State Police Command, continued to labour in vain rehashing the same story in his effort to convince the public that the four men they killed wantonly, were armed robbers. It is very disturbing how senior police officers continue to defend the murder of innocent citizens even when they know the truth or even when they later find out that their subordinate officers in the field have misinformed and misled them.
It is no longer a matter of conjecture that the police in their bid to advertise their efficiency in fighting crime, or in their bid to regain public confidence, go out of their way to kill innocent people and parade them as armed robbers. In some other cases, they kill in reprisal for the killing of their own men. In few known cases when the police have killed in error, they still go about trying to malign their innocent victims instead of admitting their error and doing the needful. They do this in a bid to ‘protect the image of the police’.
We are happy that in this current case, a Coroner’s Court sitting in Benin presided over by Mr. F. E. N. Igbinosa eventually ordered the Edo State Police to exhume the bodies of the four victims and to produce them immediately for examination by medical experts other than the police pathologists to ascertain the actual cause of their death. The Magistrate however said that police pathologists could be part of the examination. We note the emphasis on independent investigation. And this should be of great significance to the police. The police cannot constitute themselves into the accuser, prosecutor, judge and executioner, all at once, as they often do.
However, the medical examinations on the remains of the exhumed bodies have been stalled because the poor families cannot afford the money demanded by the Pathologists for the autopsy. This raises another question about the legality or propriety of families of victims being required to bear the cost of autopsy on the remains of their member killed by the police.
Also in response to a petition by NOPRIN, the IGP ordered the Police Zonal Command in Benin to investigate but no progress has been made in this investigation to unravel the truth and the circumstances surrounding the killing of the ‘Edo 4’.
POLICE BRUTALISE VICTIM’S BROTHER- PASTOR IME IMAIKOP BROWNSON
Pastor Ime Imaikop Brownson, the immediate younger brother to the deceased Samuel Imaikop, upon hearing about the incident of police carrying dead bodies in their van and his brother’s bus being driven by a policeman and following the police truck behind, he traced the police and the dead bodies to the State Police Headquarters where he identified his brother among the dead. He was shocked and immediately fell down crying. Some policemen pounced on him and began to beat him accusing him of being one of the armed robbers. They dragged him inside the police station and one of the policemen emptied a bag of salt on his head while others were matching on him as he lay flat on the ground at the police station crying in grief. He was pleading with the police to ‘forgive’ him, telling them that he was not a robber and that his brother was a farmer and not a robber. They kept beating him as he knelt down and continued to plead, saying he thought that his brother was involved in an accident. After a while, an Inspector came and asked that his statement be obtained and thereafter, he should be put in the cell. Later again, the Inspector came back and asked the officer taking his statement to stop taking his statement. He was later put in the cell with a threat that any other person who comes to see him or to inquire about any of the dead ones will also be detained. He remained in detention from that Sunday November 24 to Thursday November 28 and neither ate food nor drank water. His detention was not recorded in the crime register.
The next day, when his wife came with a lawyer, he was brought out and asked to complete making his statement, after which he was sent back to the cell. His wife was not allowed to see him or give him food.
The next day again, his wife came back with another lawyer whom the police drove away. His wife was also not allowed to see him. Then his wife later came back with another lawyer- Barrister Afolabi who eventually secured his release on the fifth day. He has since then been sick.
WRONGFUL POLICE INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE
There is every reason to doubt the claim by the police that these men were armed robbers. Similar claims in the recent past about similar killings by the police have turned out to be false. The police always circumvent the due process of investigation into such incidents. In this case, as in previous cases of extrajudicial killing, a Coroner’s inquiry into the cause of death has not been initiated as required under the law. The police hurriedly buried the dead bodies without allowing for proper investigation, including an autopsy.
The motive for this unlawful police killing is not firmly established. However, there is suspicion that the police may have carried out a reprisal for the killing of their colleagues along the Benin bypass about two weeks before the incident by suspected armed robbers.
IBRAHIM MOIMODU, BENIN
We recall the unresolved case of the Benin student whom the police killed and branded an armed robber. It took pressure from Civil Society groups in Benin before the police exhumed the body for examination. The examination proved the police wrong.
On May 27, 2013 a final year University of Benin Student, Ibrahim Momodu was shot dead by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ogida Police Station, Edo State, Mrs. Carol Afegbai, leading other members of her patrol team.
Although the police in Edo command claimed that late Ibrahim Momodu was killed while attempting to fire at the police, reports by the pathologists, who examined the remains of the late Ibrahim Momodu showed that he was shot from the back with three bullets, which torn his heart, before exiting through the upper part of his chest.
Ideally, the DPO and other suspected accomplices should have been subjected to orderly room trial, dismissed- if indicted, and arraigned in court for murder. However, the Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Folunsho Adebanjo redeployed the DPO and her orderly, according to him, ‘to have a smooth investigation’.
And, understandably, family members of the victim were suspicious of the motive of the police and insisted, through their lawyers that “the proper procedure for murder case is for the police after investigation to charge the suspects to court and thereafter, the court would order the duplication of the file to be sent to the office of DPP and not the other way round.’
‘THE BENIN 5’
We also recall the case of the Benin 5 who were arrested and branded kidnappers. The five young men: Mr. Chukwudi Eke, Mr. Chinedu, Mr. Ndubuisi Christian Nnalue, Mr. Godswill Chigbo and Isidielu Uche Onwuesi were summarily executed on October 16, 2010.
The chronicle of events leading to the extrajudicial killing of the five victims started with a minor traffic accident involving the Audi car of one of the victims, late Mr. Chukwudi Eke and a Golf 3 with registration number AG 785 SLK car belonging to one Victor Okakah who was in the company of his wife.
Chukwudi was carrying his friend and another victim late Mr. Chinedu in his car when the accident occurred at the popular Ramat Park, Benin, Edo State at about 6: 30 p.m. on Thursday, October 14, 2010. Others were arrested when they came to inquire about Chukwudi- their friend and brother, detained and executed along with him.
The Edo police authorities claimed that all the five victims ‘died when they and the police officers that went to effect arrest of their kingpin and a leader of the gang and to further recover their sophisticated weapons were ambushed by their gang members with heavy sporadic shooting which led to injury of the deceased….’ ‘That due to serious injuries of the deceased and on the way to the hospital for treatment gave up the ghost…’
Notably, not a single one among the police officers in the team had a scratch from the 'heavy sporadic shooting which led to injury' only of the suspects. The police killed them within two days of their arrest and detention. This was not enough time to conclude a thorough and exhaustive investigate of an alleged case of kidnapping. There was no effort on the part of the police to investigate the alleged kidnapping or to charge the suspects to court in accordance with due process. They were denied a fair trial and fair hearing. RECALLING ‘THE APO 6’
The foregoing take our minds back to the outrageous ‘Apo 6’ killing of 2006. The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, in his report, said: ‘if the Apo 6 were an isolated incident it would be a tragedy and a case of a few bad apples within the police force. Unfortunately, many of the ingredients - the false labeling of people as armed robbers, the shooting, the fraudulent placement of weapons, the attempted extortion of the victims’ families, the contempt for post mortem procedures, the falsified death certificates, and the flight of an accused senior police officer - are all too familiar occurrences.’
He further said in his report:
'While armed robbery does plague much of Nigeria, the label of “armed robber” is very often used to justify the jailing and/or extrajudicial execution of innocent individuals who have come to the attention of the police for reasons ranging from a refusal to pay a bribe to insulting or inconveniencing the police'.
Even the federal government of Nigeria admits that the police do indeed improperly identify some—possibly many—of their victims as “armed robbers.” On December 17, 2005, in the wake of the Apo Six murders, then Minister for Police Affairs Alaowei Broderick Bozimo placed paid announcements in major Nigerian newspapers which read, in part:
‘It will be recalled that between the 7th and the 8th of June, 2005, we recorded a most bizarre encounter between some officers of the Nigeria Police Force and six youths at Gimbiya Street, Abuja. The incident culminated in the brutal killing of six civilians by the Police. On behalf of the Nigeria Police, Ministry of Police Affairs, and Federal Government, I offer my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased for the unfortunate Apo 6 incident. . . .
Government has resolved, inter alia, as follows:
that contrary to the earlier misinformation that the Apo Six victims were armed robbers, incontrovertible evidence shows that they were NOT ARMED ROBBERS. Government, therefore, exonerates the victims and apologizes to their families and in fact all Nigerians through this medium.
The statement came more than six months after the incident in question and only after the Justice Goodluck Commission recommended the prosecution of all the officers involved.
The prosecution of the police officers responsible for the 'Apo 6' killing has since been stalled by deliberate acts of the police.
FAILURE OF JUDICIAL AND OTHER INSTITUTIONAL OVERSIGHT
There have been instances when the courts have convicted and pronounced sentences on police officers responsible for unlawful killing, but the prevailing situation is that these killings have continued unabated. In many cases, court orders on the police to pay compensations to victims or family members of victims of abuse have been largely ignored.
We do not expect so much from the Police Service Commission because by its composition and the disposition of its members, it is nothing more than an avenue to settle political allies and loyalists rather than an agency established by law and empowered, among other things, to ensure discipline and accountability within the police. We already expressed our reservations on the appointment of Mike Okiro as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission. This reservation was based on four main grounds.
The need to secure the role of the Commission as civilian credible and effective oversight mechanism.
Mr. Okiro’s role in popularising extrajudicial executions in Nigeria, an institutional illegality that has become a driver for internal extremism in Nigeria;
Mr. Okiro’s candidacy suffers clear and irremediable integrity deficits; and
As a person, Mr. Okiro’s partisan interests fail to comply with the Provisions of the Constitution.
Each of the reasons summarised above raises insuperable obstacles to Mr. Okiro’s nomination. The NOPRIN and our member organisations believe that in combination, these factors make Mr. Okiro both unqualified and unsuitable to be confirmed as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission. However, the Senate went ahead to confirm him and others.
We have seen a lot of efforts on the part of the NHRC to intervene in cases of police abuse of human rights. But we want to see concrete results.
Human rights abuses corrode public confidence and destroy police community relations and cooperation.
All of us as citizens must take interest in this disturbing issue of police abuse. We must contribute our efforts to impress it on the police and political authorities to ensure that they put an end to rampant police killings of citizens. If we allow these killings and abuse of human dignity to go unchallenged without the perpetrators brought to account, the lives of every one of us will remain at risk in the hands of those paid through our tax and commonwealth to protect us and our properties.
We all need to add our voices against police brutality and abusive exercise of police powers. Nobody is spared of this. Lawyers are at risk. Journalists are risk. Doctors are at risks. Human rights campaigners are at risks. We are all as at risk and vulnerable as the ordinary Nigeria.
In Nassarawa State, a Lawyer Barrister Chika Udeozor, who went to Mararaba Police Station in Karu LGA to stand for his client who was invited by the police was himself brutalised and thrown out of the police station for arguing with a police officer.
In Kogi State, on 13 December 2013, Mr. Yunusa Gabriel Enema, a broadcast journalist and the Media Special Assistant to the Chairman of Ibaji Local Government Area in Kogi State, North-central Nigeria, was assaulted and severely wounded by policemen in Lokoja, on suspicion of taking photographs of a policeman allegedly collecting a bribe...
Let us all join hands to say No to Police abuse of our human rights!
Thank you for your attention.
Okechukwu Nwanguma
National Coordinator
08064974531
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });