Boco Edet
18 July 2008
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, has admonished all law enforcement agencies to respect and implement the provisions of the Robben Island Guidelines (RIG) which seek to prevent and prohibit torture of African citizens.
Aondoakaa made the call at the West Africa Regional Workshop for Heads of Police and Prisons organised by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights yesterday in Abuja.
The Robben Island Guidelines are a comprehensive collection of guidelines that African states, under the auspices of the African Commission, collaborate to ensure that countries in the African region deal with basic human rights problems which include torture and other inhumane treatment.
The Minister of Justice, represented by Salihu Aliyu, Director Prosecutions, Federal Ministry of Justice, said torture continues to remain endemic in Africa.
"The callous treatment of those entrusted to us by law must stop and this should be now. Nobody can effectively achieve this than you who lead the most important and powerful institutions in the administration of criminal justice.
In his remarks, the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, represented by Commissioner of Police Columbus Okpara, said the Federal Government will not achieve the goals of Vision 2020-20 if peace and stability were lacking.
The conveyer of the event, Dupe Atoki, a Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, said the workshop was an experiment to see how the African Commission and participants can address the issues of torture concretely.
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