Lagos — United States-based human rights body, Human Rights Watch (HRW), yesterday released a report in which it identified the Nigeria Police as the most corrupt government institution, the effects of which a community of civil society organisations said, would undermine the 2011 General Elections.

This was revealed at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja where the organisation presented a 102-page report titled "Everyone in on the Game: Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force," citing police corruption, arbitrariness and extra-judicial killings as threats to credible elections.

At the presentation were the HRW Researcher on Nigeria (Africa Division), Mr. Eric Guttschuss, Mr. Leonard Dibia of Access to Justice (AJ), Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma of Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi of International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law.

The report is based on interviews with over 145 victims of and witnesses to police corruption in Nigeria including market traders, commercial drivers, sex workers, criminal suspects and victims of common crimes; rank-and-file and senior-level police officers; federal government officials; judges, prosecutors, and lawyers; religious and civil society leaders; journalists; diplomats; and members of an armed vigilante group.

Giving an insight into the report, Guttschuss said the police were used by politicians in Nigeria to achieve their private agendas as evident in the 2007 General Elections characterised by arbitrariness, violence and brutality, saying overbearing political influence in Nigeria threaten future elections.

He said credible elections "are not likely if the control of the Nigeria Police remains in the hand of politicians because police are used to rig 2007 elections. The control of the police should be taken from the politicians while professionals should be allowed to manage the country's police affairs. Unless the police are rescued from partisan control, all efforts to ensure effective reforms will be in vain."

The report x-rayed how extortion, embezzlement and other corrupt practices in the police "undermine the fundamental human rights. The most direct effect of police corruption on ordinary citizens stems from myriad of human rights abuses committed by police officers in the process of extorting money.

"The abuses range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including physical and sexual assaults, torture and even extra-judicial killings, but many police officers conduct themselves in an exemplary manner, working in difficult and often dangerous conditions," the report said.

The report also said various criminal acts by the country's police officers coupled with their failure to perform many of their most basic function severely undermined the rule of law in Nigeria, citing that the police "routinely extort money to investigate a given criminal case, which leaves those refuse or are unable to pay without access to justice."

Meanwhile, consequent upon a road accident, which resulted in no fewer than 15 their lives last Sunday and 21 vehicles burnt, Access to Justice (AJ), a human rights organisation, has commenced a process of conducting a Coroner's Inquest into the accident to determine if officers of the Nigeria Police are the root cause.

AJ Director of Programme, Mr. Leonard Dibia, disclosed this in Lagos where HRW presented a report on corruption and human rights abuses in the Nigeria Police Force.

Dibia also said the Access to Justice had completed an arrangement to drag the Nigeria Police before a federal high court sitting in Lagos over the brutal killing of a commercial bus driver in Akowonjo area of Lagos by a reckless police officer.

Speaking on the conduct of coroner's inquest, Dibia described the accident, which occurred opposite Sir Michael Otedola Housing Estate, as sad and unfortunate, saying his organisation had begun process to unravel the cause of the accident.