A team of the Nigerian police
The widespread corruption in the Nigerian Police Forces has been identified as the reason for the abuses against ordinary citizens which undermines the rule of law in the country.
This is the thrust of the report recently released by the Human Right Watch in Nigeria and it has therefore called on the Nigerian authorities to take immediate steps to improve budgetary transparency in the police force and to investigate and bring to justice police officers at all levels implicated in corrupt practices.
With the title of the 102-page report as: “‘Everyone’s in on the GameGame’: Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force,” it documents the myriad forms of police corruption in Nigeria.
The report also shows how institutionalized extortion, a profound lack of political will to reform the force and impunity combine to make police corruption a deeply embedded problem.
Basic Rights of all Nigerians Threatened
Commenting on the report, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, Corinne Dufka said: “The long-term failure of the Nigerian authorities to address police bribery, extortion, and wholesale embezzlement threatens the basic rights of all Nigerians.”
She noted that the report is based on interviews with more than 145 victims of and witnesses to police corruption in Nigeria and that they include 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.
Police Works in Difficult and Often Dangerous Conditions
According to her, HRW’s research revealed that many Nigerian police officers conduct themselves in an exemplary manner, working in difficult and often dangerous conditions. “However, it also showed that corruption and abusive behavior within the Nigeria Police Force is endemic. One police sergeant lamented to Human Rights Watch that corruption is like ‘a disease in all of us’.”
On the high level of extortion and bribery, Dufka said that the report documents how, on a daily basis, countless Nigerians traveling on the country’s roads, buying or selling at markets, running daily errands, or working in their offices are accosted by armed police officers demanding bribes.
She observed that to extort money, these officers frequently threaten victims and commit human rights abuses adding that in some areas the extortion at police roadblocks, ostensibly put in place to combat the rampant crime that afflicts many Nigerian communities, has taken on the nature of a standardized “toll.”
“The officers at the roadblocks make little attempt to hide their collection of money, exposing the near total lack of will on the part of senior police officers and government authorities to hold officers accountable,” she added.
Nigerians Routinely Subjected to Arbitrary Arrest
She further said that the research revealed that people refusing to pay bribes are routinely subjected to arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, and threats until they or their family members negotiate payment for their release.
“Extortion-related confrontations between the police and motorists often escalate into more serious abuses. The evidence suggests that police officers have on numerous occasions severely beaten, sexually assaulted, or shot to death ordinary citizens who failed to pay the bribes demanded,” she noted.
Dufka said that the research also shows that the frequency of such acts of extortion has also led many Nigerians to become as complacent about police corruption as they are distrustful of the police adding that as one market trader put it to Human Rights Watch: “When you have a problem, you should expect the police to help you, to safeguard life and property – but instead, they go the other way. The police are not protecting us; they are fetching money for their own pockets.”
No comments:
Post a Comment