Iyefu Adoba
4 March 2005
Abuja — Deputy Political Counselor of the United States Embassy, Mr. Russell Hanks, yesterday in Abuja, said the Human Rights Report by the US State Department criticizing Nigeria for its poor human rights track record is not intended as an enforcement measure but for information and educational purposes.
Presenting the 2004 report to newsmen in Abuja Hanks said the report which classifies Nigeria's human rights record as poor and Fraught with serious human rights abuses, is as accurate as possible.
Stating that no country including the US has a perfect human rights record, Hanks however said: "the question is not whether you have human rights abuses; its what you do about them when they occur. "Allow me to note that improving human rights requires the functioning of certain institutions. While those institutions are described, it is the actions of individuals from the institutions and from Nigerian society in general that are the focus of the report."
The country report on Nigeria cited flawed nation wide local government elections in 2004, extra judicial killings by security forces and the arrest and detention of people for political reasons as some of the examples of numerous human rights abuses.
Harsh judgments handed down by Sharia courts, life threatening prison conditions, prolonged pre-trial detention and the occasional restriction of freedom of speech and press as well as the use of limits on some religious rights for security concerns were also pointed out in the report as violations of human rights by the government.
The police task force tagged "Operation Fire for Fire" described as a frequent human rights offender gave a largely untrained police force broad latitude in using deadly force said the report.
"In most cases, police officers were not held accountable for excessive or deadly force, or for the deaths of persons in custody. They generally operated with impunity in the apprehension, illegal detention, and sometimes execution of criminal suspects."
The 31 page report on Nigeria said similarly no action was not taken in cases of killings of suspected criminals by police in at least 4 states, while former Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun announced last December that the police killed 1,694 "Suspected armed robbers."
No arrests, the report claims were made over the killing of PDP chieftain Aminasoari Dikibo, nor of Kogi State Electoral Chairman Phillip Olorunnipa and several other cases that were politically motivated. Neither were there any developments in the 2003 killings of Marshall Harry, Uche Ogbonnaya, Chief Bola Ige by unknown assailants.
On the right of citizens to change their government, the report commenting on the 2003 elections said the legislative elections were marred by widespread fraud and it upheld the European Unions observer mission's categorization of extremely poor presidential elections and seriously marred elections nationwide.
"Although all parties participated in the misconduct; observers cited violations by the ruling PDP significantly more than others. Some election tribunal cases related to the flawed 2003 elections were still on going at year's end. More than 90 per cent of the cases that had been decided by years end were simply dismissed on technicalities."
Referring to the voiding of the 2003 presidential elections including the entire result of Ogun State by an election tribunal, the report said INEC's actions during the year continued to raise serious rule of law questions.
It mentioned Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige's abduction, as well as other aspects of the crisis in that state but added that no arrests have been made so far.
Although the report noted that the largely vibrant private and domestic press continued to be critical of government, it said there were multiple cases of threats against and attacks on the press with security forces beating journalists on several occasions.
It said that the government proposal that journalists covering the National Assembly clear all materials before publication was dropped after protests.
The report observed that massive corruption continues to be widespread and pervaisve at all levels of the government and society, while the 2003 prosecution of a former labour minister and others was not completed by end of 2004.
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