Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) in collaboration with J4A, a British government funded program in Nigeria has opened a can of worms revealing gory tale of alleged killing and torture of innocent persons by the Nigerian Police.
The tale of torture was chronicled in a publication that aptly recorded some alleged police brutality across the country which the group presented to the public in Lagos.
The publication ‘Through The Lens Of The Media Vol. 2’ is a compendium of alleged torture, disappearance, killing, sexual abuse and other forms of abuses by law enforcement agents in the country.
Also presented to the public by the organisation was the re-printed ‘Revised Lagos Coroner’s Law (2007)’.
Addressing the conference, national co-ordinator of NOPRIN, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma said that between December 1,2013 and April 2015, the organisation with support from Justice for all (J4A) implemented key activities under the project ‘promoting Redress and Accountability for Police Abuse in Nigeria’.
The project which has two components which include documenting, verifying and publicising cases of police abuse in Nigeria and assessing and promoting the effective application of the Lagos state Coroner’s law.
“For the duration of the project, we documented every news report on the police that came to our attention and recorded a total of 1,018 reports on various issues concerning the police” Nwanguma stated.
He said a total of 117 cases were registered between December 2013 and May 2015, and some dating back to 2009, which were captured under its Case management register (CMR).
Out of the 117 cases, 103 were male victims while 14 were female while the average of the victims is 33, he disclosed.
Giving further details, Nwanguma said ‘We recorded 16 cases of brutality, 2 torture, 55 unlawful killing, 35 unlawful detention, 7 cases of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and 2 ‘other’ including cases of police cover-up or muddling up of investigation.
“29 cases of torture were recorded as additional factor to the main incidents. For example, in virtually all the cases of unlawful detention or extrajudicial killing, torture was intrinsically involved’.