19 May 2008
opinion
Lagos — As the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration is set to mark its first year anniversary and drawing from available indices, Davidson Iriekpen writes on the culture of impunity by the police in the face of the administration's much-touted rule of law. Is anything different from successive governments?
Wahab Oba is the current chairman of the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). Recently Oba in company of three other journalists from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) were arrested, abused and detained for no just cause.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the policemen, Oba said they were at a restaurant, about 30 metres to his house and in the precinct of the state television having a chat when suddenly men of the force stormed the place. He said they were shooting sporadically into the air and ordering everybody to lie down or they would shoot them. He said that all attempts by him and his colleagues to introduce themselves were rebuffed by the officers who bundled them into a waiting danfo bus and driven to the Area C Police Station where they were detained for hours. He said the officers who arrested were reeking with alcohol.
The travail of the NUJ chairman and colleagues is not a peculiar one. There are thousands of Nigerians today languishing in police custody and prisons picked up randomly by the police on flimsy excuses. Some were arrested and detained indefinitely while taking a walk in their neigbourhood. Others while on errand or through raid on the neigbourhood. These days, it's common knowledge to see people spend upward of six years in detention without trial for nothing and without the knowledge of the relations of their whereabout. This is how terrible the Nigeria Police could be. And this is one of the reasons for prison congestion in the country today, analysts said.
Police abuses have continued uninterrupted since the debut of civilian government in 1999 with the police, military, and elected officials committing serious and persistent human rights abuses against Nigerian other citizens. The lack of political will to improve the country's poor human rights situation and ensure accountability for abuses not only threatens to undermine the fragile gains made since the end of military rule but also poses daunting challenges to holding credible and violence-free elections.
The Nigeria police and other security forces have continued to be implicated in widespread acts of torture, ill-treatment, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and property destruction. Added to these, the processes meant to bring accountability have continued to be crippled by corruption, inefficiency, political influence, and an underlying culture of impunity. Those responsible for Nigeria's worst abuses have evaded meaningful sanctions.
In his report in 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak accused the Nigeria Police of widespread human rights violations, telling the UN Human Rights Council that Nigerian Police routinely tortured suspects during investigations. Nowak also deplored Nigeria's unsanitary and overcrowded detention facilities, saying that some prisoners even lacked food and water.
Last February, Amnesty International (AI) accused Nigeria Police and Prisons of systematically violating the rights of suspects and inmates. It also accused the police of secretly executing suspects, saying that the executed suspects were generally tried without representation and were not given any opportunity to appeal their convictions. Impunity from prosecution remains the biggest single obstacle to ending abuses such as these.
Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo's public acknowledgment in August 2005 that Nigerian Police officers committed murder and torture did not translate during 2006 into any significant effort to hold members of the security forces accountable for past or on-going crimes, in which their involvement is alleged. The pathetic case of one Samson Adekoya who was last seen by members of his family in police custody at Special Armed Robbery Squad (SARS) cell, Lagos State Commissioner's office, GRA, Ikeja on February 18, 2008, is one good example.
On February 13, police from Gowon Estate post went to Adekoya's house in Agege and, failing to meet him, arrested his pregnant wife. Adekoya later reported at Gowon Estate Police Station on February 14, following police invitation. He was later the same day transferred to SARS, Ikeja. Between the said date of detention and February 18, Adekoya was visited and seen in police custody (at SARS) by one of his wives, Mrs. Abidemi Adekoya, while his brother, Adewale Adekoya was only allowed to speak to him by telephone with the help of the IPO Supol Jimoh aka "Yago".
It was however reported that by February 18, Abidemi (the detainee's wife) was totally barred from seeing her husband (the detainee) for reasons that were neither disclosed by the IPO, nor were perceivable from the circumstance. Upon further inquiry by the detainee's brother (Adewale Adekoya) on February 26, the IPO Supol Jimoh allegedly informed him that the detainee was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja over an ailment that could neither be named nor described by the police.
But the more engaging anomaly was that, in addition to Supol Jimoh's refusal and/or failure to give specific account of the ailment and location of the detainee's admission at LASUTH, Ikeja, he expressly advised members of the Adekoya family against making attempts at locating him (Adekoya) at the said hospital or at the mortuary. In fact, Yago expressly described any such search as a futile exercise. As advised and foretold by Yago, the family's search at the LASUTH between February 27 and March 3, 2008 proved abortive as there was no record of admissions bearing Adekoya's identity between the time of his arrest and disappearance from police (SARS) custody.
An independent investigation launched by Access to Justice, a civil rights group based in Lagos at the LASUTH registry and the morgue confirmed that no person of Adekoya's identity or description was either on sick record at the hospital or in preservative custody at the morgue at the material time in question.
Following this development, the civil rights group by its letter dated May 5, 2008, petitioned the Lagos State Commissioner of Police for necessary inquiry and accountability. Presently, the group has commenced legal action against the Lagos State Police Command through the prerogative writ of Habeas Corpus at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, for the production of "the missing Samson Adekoya in court, or for an accurate report of his where-about, among other relieves."
Within the Lagos axis alone, every year appears to record its own fair dosage of victims who are accused, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced and executed on one spot - the police station or traffic check-point. The culture of impunity associated with these killings has soared from military rule to Obasanjo's government and now to Yar'Adua's. There is a chilling practice of alleged "midnight-interrogation" 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, at the Ikeja GRA, narrates the practice of calling out specific inmates at about midnight for interrogation. Information indicates that many of those called-out for interrogation never returned to the cell.
Wnvestigation by THISDAY reveals the case involving one Osondu Obiajulu and his seven-month old son, Master Chukwudi Obiajulu. The pathetic and harrowing experience of Obiajulu and his infant son occurred on May 30, 2000 at No '52 Makoko Road, Yaba, Lagos when a team of mobile policemen who reportedly, were on the trail of prostitutes in the area, opened fire indiscriminately within the precincts of the Obiajulu's residence. In the wake of 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 the 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 officer (one Sergeant Matthew Morontonu), events following his arraignment under a criminal charge at the Yaba Magisterial District of Lagos State proved to be a loud mockery of the nation's criminal justice system. By 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 Yaba Magistrate 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 prosecution of the killer of his wife.
In his frustration, Obiajulu ran to Access to Justice which filed an action (pro bono) for enforcement of the deceased right to life and for the award of compensation to the two plaintiffs as beneficiaries of the deceased's consortium and maternal care. In a judgment delivered on June 4, 2007, after three years of litigation, Hon. Justice Tijani Abubakar of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court awarded the plaintiffs the sum of N10, 086,500.00 as general, special and exemplary damages.
There is also the case of one Theophilus Uwalaka and his vehicle assistant, Solomon Sabi, who were arrested by the police on about January 15. 2005. The allegation was that while transporting a consignment of iron rods for Uwalaka's employer, one Chief Jude Uzoma, from Wharf to Alakija, Lagos, they diverted the iron rods and disposed same for their own benefits. The victims' story differed remarkably as they stated that a team of uniformed men hijacked them around Mile 2 hill-top, beat them mercilessly and drove them to Third Mainland Bridge where they discharged them and made away with the truck and iron rods.
In course of investigation at the Lagos State CID, Panti, Lagos the victims were subjected to excruciating torture. Solomon Sabi was tied at his feet, hung upside down and beaten with batons for over 45 minutes of interrogation. He bled profusely from his nostrils in that upside down position - becoming temporarily blind from the inverse crucifixion.
Access to Justice again fought for his bail at Panti police station and took him for medical treatment at the Apapa General Hospital and provided for his upkeep until he was strong enough to find menial jobs for his sustenance. Uwalaka, who at the time of this incident was 60 years old, was beaten severely with iron rods during interrogation at Panti, before he was transferred to SARS, Ikeja for further torture.
At SARS, he was made to sit transfixed in an immovable position for four days (popularly referred to as "J5" torture position in police interrogation parlance). Save for one sachet of pure water daily, he was starved for the four days of detention at SARS. Access to Justice obtained his bail after three weeks of harrowing detention.
Extra-judicial killings, torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and extortion remain the hallmarks of the Nigerian police, despite repeated promises of reform by senior government and police officials. Numerous cases of raids, arrests, torture and ill-treatment by the police during arrest and detention were also reported. Firsthand testimonies provided to Human Rights Watch showed that in some cases, explicit instructions to the police to torture and shoot protesters were issued by senior police officials. Police also took advantage of situations of generalised violence and disorder to carry out further killings.
Speaking in Lagos recently, the Executive Director of Access to Justice, Mr. Joseph Otteh decried the growing rate of extra-judicial killings and torture of Nigerians by law enforcement agencies particularly the police in the country. Otteh, did not only blame the Nigerian government for paying lip service to the issue of rule of law while paying no attention to incessant cases of rights abuses and extra-judicial killings in the country, but specifically accused the Yar'Adua government of vicariously responsible for the continuing deaths of many Nigerians in police custody.
"His government has failed to act on several reports profiling severe abuses of human rights within the law enforcement system up till this time. I thought I should use this opportunity to deplore the fact that, close to one year of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's Administration, there is still no specific vision or national agenda, policy statement, or action plan to improve the situation of human rights for the Nigerian people.
"Although there has been a stream of rhetoric about the rule of law, but what the administration means by the rule of law, in large part, has been compliance with court judgments. While this is very important, focusing on the rule of law without a corresponding improvement in respect for human rights is totally incongruous, and is completely under-achieving for a constitutional democracy," he said.
While presenting cheques of N300, 000 and N250, 000 to Sabi and Uwalaka respectively, money awarded to them by another Federal High Court in Lagos, following the fundamental rights suit they brought against the police for torturing them in January 2005, Otteh, enjoined Nigerians not to give up hope of obtaining redress for maltreatment in the hands of security personnel.
He challenged the President to be decisive on issues of torture and right abuses. He equally called on Yar'Adua to set up to review all reports of unauthorized killings and right abuses issued by both local and international bodies who had in recent past carried out studies on the issues in the country
He said despite the fact that Nigeria is a member of the re-branded UN human rights body, - the Human Rights Council, and equally represented in the African Commission on Human and People's Rights as well as plays a leading role in regional and international affair, yet, domestically, the government is failing the Nigerian people by failing to respect and enforce their most basic rights, especially those of life and dignity.
"Nigeria has ratified major UN and AU treaties on human rights yet the government has continued to be silent over the atrocities within the law enforcement sector which has emboldened the perpetrators of these abuses, and give them an implicit license to continue debasing the rights of crime suspects, those who the Constitution presumes as innocent until their guilt is proven," he said.
He called on the government to establish a commission to review all the reports of UN Special Rapporteur, as well as those of national and international civil society groups, and the recommendations made towards addressing the chronic abuses of human rights within the law enforcement system and recommend a proactive policy blueprint to be implemented by the administration in its lifetime.
According to public affairs analyst, Chiazor Okonta, there are some elements presently in the Nigeria Police Force who should not be there. Nigerians, he said cannot depend on the Inspector General of Police and his DIGs to get them out. "As a matter of urgency, we can not depend on the Nigeria police leadership to clean up the force because they are part of the problem. Government needs to appoint an independent commission to look into the background of all members of the police force including the police commissioners and clean up the present mess we call the Nigeria Police Force," he stressed.
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