Amnesty International has challenged the Federal Government to criminalise the use of torture by the Police and military as a tool of investigations.
The movement stated that the military had detained, at least, 5,000 persons for terrorism since 2009 when military operations began against Boko Haram, many of whom, it alleged, were tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
The police and the military routinely torture women, men and children – some as young as 12 – using a wide range of methods, including beatings, shootings and rape, Amnesty International said in the 2014 report presented to journalists on Thursday in Abuja.
The AI Research and Advocacy Director, Netsatmet Belay, who presented the report titled, “Welcome to hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria,” said AI would continue to engage the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights to investigate cases of torture by the police and the military in Nigeria.
Compiled from interviews and testimonies of 500 torture survivors and evidence gathered over 10 years, the report exposes the alleged use of police torture chambers and routine abuses by the military in the country.
It also reveals how most of those detained are held incommunicado and denied access to the outside world, including lawyers, families and courts.
Belay flayed the Nigerian judicial system for failing to prevent torture and other ill-treatment, noting that human rights violations are routine and common in the country particularly in police stations and military detention facilities.
The AI noted that although Nigeria prohibited torture and other ill-treatment in its constitution and had signed numerous international human rights protocols banning the violation, authorities continue to turn a blind eye to torture and have not made the violation a criminal offence.
Belay said, “Torture is not a criminal offence in Nigeria, despite such acts being constitutionally prohibited. A law criminalising torture is yet to be passed even though two different bills have been pending in the National Assembly for two years.
“In line with their obligations under international human rights law, the Nigerian authorities must take all necessary steps to ensure that no detainee is subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by members of the security forces. The government should, therefore, criminalise torture by the Police and the military.”
The AI director challenged the FG to demonstrate total opposition to torture and ill-treatment and publicly condemn such practices whenever they occur.
A victim of torture, Justice Nwanwko, a hotel manager, who was arrested in Onitsha, on July 31, 2013, over the discovery of two human skulls and an AK 47 rifle in a room in the hotel, narrated how he was beaten and hanged “on a rope like a barbecue” by men of the Special Anti-roberry Squad, Akwuzu, Anambra State.
Nwanwko explained that he was detained in a dark cell for 36 days along with a director of the hotel. He was subsequently arraigned in court for the murder of one Nnamdi Okafor, who he said was killed in custody by the Police.
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