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The police official at Force CID in Abuja who managed the investigations into the 2008 Jos violence
told Human Rights Watch, in February 2009, that they went through most of the cases of individuals
arrested but could not find any link between the individuals and any offense, so there was no
reason to continue to detain them. 488 Similarly, the Kaduna State director of public prosecutions
said he reviewed the case diaries from the April 2011 violence—200 suspects lumped into five case
diaries—and recommended that charges should be dropped against all but 18 of the suspects. The
police had not done a “proper investigation,” he found, adding that there was no evidence that
could stand in court to warrant prosecution of the cases. 489 “The problem is generally not the
political will to prosecute,” he argued, “the problem is the quality of evidence.” 490
Failure to Investigate: The Weak Link
The failure of the police to investigate crimes, by proactively investigating incidents of violence,
pursuing credible leads, and following through on criminal investigations, is one of the major
impediments in securing accountability for these serious crimes.
The Anonymity of the Mob
Mass violence, which is often carried out by large groups or mobs, is particularly difficult to
prosecute, given the challenges of linking evidence to individual suspects. In some incidents
documented in this report, for example, members of mobs covered or painted their faces, or the
perpetrators carried out the violence at night, making it more difficult for witnesses to identify
individual perpetrators. 491 This problem is especially relevant in urban areas such as Kaduna and
Jos, where, following years of violence, neighborhoods have become increasingly segregated
along religious and ethnic lines, making it less likely that people personally know each other
across those divides.
But Human Rights Watch found that in many cases people had witnessed crimes and could
identify who, for example, burned their house or killed their neighbors or family members. This
was more likely if the violence took place in a small community or rural area—where people are
488 Human Rights Watch interview with Abiola Odion, police commissioner in charge of general investigations, Criminal Investigation
Department, Force Headquarters, Abuja, February 23 2009.
489 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Bayero Dari, Kaduna State director of public prosecutions, Kaduna, November 22, 2013.
490 Human Rights Watch interview with Bayero Dari, then Kaduna State deputy director of public prosecutions, Kaduna, August 18, 2011.
491 For example, Human Rights Watch conducted a group interview with more than 20 Christian victims in Kafanchan. All of the victims
had homes, shops, or vehicles burned, but none of them was able to identify individual perpetrators, noting that much of the violence
took place at night and many of them fled when the violence started. See also sections above on the March 2010 Dogo Nahawa
massacre or the April 2011 attack on the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic in Zaria.
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