Lagos — In its recent report entitled: "Nigeria: Killing at will-ExtraJudicial-Executions and Other unlawful killings", Amnesty International, one of the most respected international human rights watchdogs in the world , indicted the Nigeria police for human rights abuses.

It blamed the police for hundreds of extra-judicial executions, unlawful killings and enforced disappearances every year in Nigeria. In arriving at this verdict, the human rights advocacy group said it relied on interviews and researches it carried out in the Federal Capital Territory , Abuja , Enugu , Imo, Lagos and Kano States between July 2007 and July 2009.

It also relied on court cases, coroners' inquests, judicial inquests, police documents and the reports of the Presidential Commission on Police Reform in preparing its report, as well as interviews it had with prisoners in prisons throughout the country. Amnesty International also interviewed the family members of people who had been extra-judicially executed by the police or who had disappeared from police custody.

Some of the students and youngsters allegedly murdered by the police recently include: Chibuike Anams, 23, Chukwuemeka Onovo, 22, Emmanuel Egbe, 15, Christian Onuigbo, 28 and others. At the same time, the management of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu has raised an alarm that several unidentified corpses, probably victims of police extra-judicial killings, are being dumped at the hospital's morgue by the police.

But in a swift reaction, the Nigeria Police Force has said that the Amnesty International's report is simply vindictive, one-sided and, above all, actuated by pent-up ill-feeling, resentment and hatred against the police.

Considering the overwhelming evidence adduced by Amnesty International, it seems to us that the Nigeria Police cannot be exculpated from human rights abuses. Although the Police have challenged the report but even without it, police extra-judicial executions and unlawful killings in Nigeria have become a notorious fact requiring no evidential proof. The reality of police extra-judicial killings and brutality is so stark to the average Nigerian that he doesn't need the Amnesty International report to come to terms with it. The history of Nigeria is inextricably tied to the history of police extra-judicial executions and police brutality. Since independence the relationship between the Nigerian citizens and the police has been characterized by extra-judicial killings, brutality and bloody confrontations.

We have seen University students on peaceful demonstrations being mowed down by the police. The police shoot and kill drivers who refuse to pay bribes to them at checkpoints. The murder of the "Apo Six" by the police is still unresolved. On April 5, 2009 a two-year old girl was shot and killed by the police at a checkpoint in Lagos. An angry policeman was caught spraying tear gas in a children's hospital in Ibadan recently. The recent Ijebu-Ode massacre is alleged to be masterminded by the police. The list is endless.

We therefore urge that proper investigation be conducted into the Amnesty International allegations. We equally demand that the policemen implicated in extra-judicial killings should be promptly arrested and prosecuted. Justice demands that the relatives and families of the victims be adequately compensated.

Above all, the Federal Government should go beyond rhetoric and truly embark on the much-vaunted reform of the Nigeria Police Force. It is a great tragedy that the police which is meant to protect the citizens is turning round to harm or murder them.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, should be reminded of his promise upon assuming office that he would re-invigorate the police to enable it perform its duty efficiently. Only a well-motivated, trained and disciplined Nigeria Police force that is conscious of its constitutional duty can rise to the challenge of detecting crimes and protecting the citizenry.