The United States yesterday released a damming report on human rights
abuses by security agencies in Nigeria. It also accused officials of
the Nigeria Prisons Service of routinely extorting money from inmates as
fees for food, prison maintenance, and sometimes to secure their
release from prison.
The officials have also been accused of various other abuses, including
rape of female prisoners under their custody. The report also accused
the Nigerian Armed Forces, Nigeria Police and the Department of State
Services (DSS) of human rights abuses in their operations in different
parts of Nigeria.
The allegations were contained in a document tagged: Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices for 2015 which was authored by the United States
Department of States, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.
It focused essentially on human rights abuses by governments and
agencies of governments across the world. According to the report, only
prisoners with money or support from their families had sufficient food
as the officials routinely stole money provided for prisoners’ food.
Poor inmates, the report said, often relied on handouts from others to
survive while officials, police, and other security personnel often
denied inmates food and medical treatment to punish them or extort money
from them.
It revealed that the condition of prisons and detention centres across
Nigeria were harsh and life threatening. The report claimed that
prisoners and detainees, the majority of whom had not been tried, were
reportedly subjected to extrajudicial execution, torture, gross
overcrowding, food and water shortages, inadequate medical treatment,
deliberate and incidental exposure to heat and sun, and infrastructure
deficiencies that led to wholly inadequate sanitary conditions that
could result in death.
“Authorities sometimes held female and male prisoners together,
especially in rural areas. Prisons had no facilities to care for
pregnant women or nursing mothers. Infants born to inmate mothers
usually remained with the mother until weaned. Prison authorities often
held juvenile suspects with adults. The government often detained
suspected militants outside the formal prison system. It also revealed
that Nigeria operated some unofficial military prisons including the
Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State, the Sector Alpha (aka
“Guantanamo”) and Presidential Lodge (aka “the Guardroom”) facilities in
Damaturu, Yobe State, among others.
Amnesty International had, in a separate report released in May 2015,
alleged that these unofficial prisons were havens for cases of
extrajudicial killings, inhuman and degrading treatment, beatings,
torture, starvation, and illegal detention of persons. The report
accused the Nigerian government and its agents of committing numerous
arbitrary and unlawful killings. It said that the Nigeria Police,
Nigeria Army and other security services committed extrajudicial
killings and used lethal and excessive force to apprehend criminals and
suspects as well as to disperse protesters.
“Authorities generally did not hold police, military, or other security
force personnel accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or
for the deaths of persons in custody. State and federal panels of
inquiry investigating suspicious deaths did not make their findings
public.
“Security force use of excessive force, including live ammunition, to
disperse demonstrators resulted in numerous killings during the year.
For example, on December 12, army troops killed an undetermined number –
possibly hundreds according to some credible reports – of members of
the Shia group Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in Zaria, Kaduna State,
following an altercation at a roadblock that disrupted the convoy of
the Chief of Army Staff.
IMN leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, remained in government custody,
while institutions, including the Kaduna State government, the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Assembly, and the
Nigerian Army launched or pledged to launch inquiries into the incident.
“Security forces were allegedly responsible for extrajudicial killings,
often arbitrarily executing many individuals at one time. In May,
following the killing and mutilation of six soldiers by cattle rustlers,
army troops killed dozens of civilians and razed scores of houses in
Wase District, Plateau State. Community leaders accused the military of
storming several villages at night and firing indiscriminately,” said
the report.
The report singled out the activities of the Boko Haram as the most
serious human rights abuses in the country. It observed that the
terrorist group conducted numerous attacks on government and civilian
targets that resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, widespread
destruction, the internal displacement of an estimated 1.8 million
persons, and the external displacement of 220,000 Nigerian refugees to
neighbouring countries.
“In its response to Boko Haram attacks, and at times to crime and
insecurity in general, security services perpetrated extrajudicial
killings, and engaged in torture, rape, arbitrary detention,
mistreatment of detainees and destruction of property.
“The country also suffered from widespread societal unrest, including
ethnic, regional, and religious violence. Other serious human rights
problems included vigilante killings; prolonged pre-trial detention,
often in facilities with poor conditions; denial of fair public trial;
executive influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens’ privacy
rights; and restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and
movement,” the report.
The US report said that the Nigerian government took only a few steps to
investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in
the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity
remained widespread at all levels of government. It said that although
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration began initial steps to curb
corruption, authorities did not investigate or punish the majority of
cases of police or military abuse.
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