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12 NIGERIA ‘WAITING FOR THE HANGMAN’ understands the enormous challenges faced by law-enforcement agencies in a developing nation as our own…. [such as] the lack of an effective complaints mechanism; the unsatisfactory state of detention facilities; the under-resourced and over-stretched criminal justice system; Shari’a Law and corporal punishment, etc.” 15 In a meeting with Amnesty International in July 2008, senior representatives of the Nigeria Police Force assured delegates that human rights violations by the police had been addressed, saying: “We are not practising torture.” 16 ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTION “Someone can end up on death row because he was wandering and could not pay the police.” Lawyer interviewed by Amnesty International, July 2008 According to a lawyer and senior officer of the Legal Aid Council: “It is a standard practice that the police first arrest bystanders and suspects, and then start investigating.” 17 Many prisoners told Amnesty International and LEDAP that they were arrested first, and only became suspects later, in the police station. © Amnesty International A poster highlighting a campaign against torture in Nigeria, produced by the Civil Liberties Organisation. At times, if the police are unable to find a suspect, they arrest the wife or mother of the suspect in lieu. 18 Some people were arrested when they reported to the police station because they were a witness or friend of the suspect. Moses, a 61-year-old driver who used to work for local government in Katsina State, was arrested in 1993 when he reported to the police: “The DPO [Divisional Police Officer] wanted to see me…When I met him he said he is not looking for me. When I went back home, another police man told me that the DPO wanted to see me. I follow him, the DPO told me that I am suspect in the killing of the Chairman’s messenger and another person. Later, the police took me to the CID, later to court and court told me I should be hanged by the neck.” Moses said he was tortured by the police and confessed. In court he retracted his confession, saying it was made under duress. He called six witnesses who testified he had an alibi. In May 1997, the court rejected the alibi, found him guilty of homicide and sentenced him to death. His death sentence was confirmed by a court of appeal in 2006. He has been on death row for 11 years. 19 Amnesty International October 2008 Index: AFR 44/020/2008
NIGERIA ‘WAITING FOR THE HANGMAN’ 13 FAILURE TO INVESTIGATE “I can prove that I was not there… the other men, they were not even in town. We told the police this, but the officers said they couldn’t follow up because there was no transport.” A 61-year-old man sentenced to death for murder Many prisoners, both those awaiting trial and those on death row, told Amnesty International and LEDAP that the police picked them up and asked for money to release them. Those who did not have the money to pay allege they were treated as suspected armed robbers in the police cell. A lawyer confirmed: “They can arrest someone for assault. If the suspect does not pay, for example, Naira 50,000, it is likely they will charge him with armed robbery.” 20 In 2005, 2,704 cases of armed robbery were reported and 3,816 people were arrested. 21 However, in the same year, 13,491 people were sent to prison for armed robbery and 10,880 for robbery. 22 SUSPECTED ARMED ROBBERS KILLED BY THE POLICE Armed robbery continues to be a huge problem in Nigeria, affecting many people. Police authorities allow their officers to extrajudicially execute suspected armed robbers. 23 LEDAP estimated that between 2003 and 2007, 252 suspected armed robbers were killed by the police. In 2007 alone, 100 people were killed, a figure that only includes those killings reported in the media. 24 The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) observed that “Whatever the explanation, extrajudicial executions appear to have become an acceptable tool of policing.” NOPRIN states that it is hard to quantify the number of people killed by the police as “the police do not keep adequate records of encounter and other killings committed by its personnel or … figures of police killings are deliberately manipulated to produce artificially low statistics of killings.” NOPRIN estimates that the police execute more than seven people a day. 25 The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in a report following his visit to Nigeria in 2005, stated: “Despite the fact that the scourge of armed robbery plagues much of Nigeria, the label of ‘armed robber’ is very often used to justify the jailing and/or extrajudicial execution of innocent individuals”. He further advised “Armed robbery as such should be removed as a capital offence.” 26 On 27 March 2008, the Special Rapporteur observed that little had changed, saying: “Unfortunately, it seems like business as usual with the Nigerian police continuing to get away with murder” and ”Patterns of human rights violation that I witnessed in 2005 continue today.” 27 Other prisoners explained that the police had no resources to investigate their case. For example, if suspects were unable to pay for fuel, police could not go and see witnesses, in order to check their alibi. Index: AFR 44/020/2008 Amnesty International October 2008
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