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This
teenage boy arrested for being a suspected militant had melted plastic poured
on his back in 2013
Torture has become
such an integral part of policing in Nigeria that many stations have an
informal torture officer, Amnesty International says. Both the military and
police use a wide range of torture methods including beatings, nail and teeth
extractions and other sexual violence, it says.
One woman accused of theft in
Lagos said she was sexually assaulted, and had tear gas sprayed into her
vagina.
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Nigeria's
police told the BBC the force had a "zero tolerance for torture".
"It
may happen and when it does happen it is appropriately dealt with," police
spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told the BBC Hausa service.
"Every
officer in Nigerian police has a duty post - there is no duty post for
torture," he said.
"If
somebody's tortured let him please report to the next higher authority and then
action will be taken."
Entitled
Welcome to Hell Fire,
the Amnesty report says people are often detained in large dragnet operations
and tortured as punishment, to extort money or to extract
"confessions" as a way to solve cases.
Extrajudicial
executions
The
use of torture is particularly extreme in the north-east in the war against
Boko Haram Islamist militants, Amnesty says.
The
UK-based rights group says between 5,000 and 10,000 people have been arrested
there since 2009, and executions in overcrowded detention facilities are
common.
A
teenage boy, pictured at the top, was among 50 people arrested by the army in
Pokiskum in Yobe state last year on suspicion being a member of the Boko Haram.
At
the time he was 15 years old and spent three weeks in custody in Damaturu and
said he was beaten continuously with gun butts, batons and machetes.
"I
was thrown inside a cell. I noticed a written sign on the wall 'Welcome to hell
fire'… I was taken to the interrogation room.
"There
was a police officer at one end with two suspects who were chained together.
"I
saw ropes streaming down from the ceiling tops, bags of sand elevated on the
perimeter wall fence of the hall and all types of rod and metal in different
shapes and sizes.
"I
heard shouts and screams from torture victims… I saw buckets of water on
standby in case anybody faints or opts to die before appending [their]
signature to already written statements."
The
officer questioned him, tied his hands and legs, passed a rod between them and
elevated him from a perimeter wall. They poured water on him whenever he passed
out. He was charged with murder, has since been freed on bail and is awaiting
trial.
The
boy told Amnesty that melted plastic was poured on his back and he was asked to
walk and roll over broken bottles in a hole, and cold water was poured on him
and others.
A
former soldier who served at Damaturu confirmed that torture was routinely used
at the camp.
"An
electrified baton is used on a person to make them talk," he told Amnesty.
"They
tie people with their hands stretched behind their arms… people kept like that
for six or seven hours lose their hands, people kept like that much longer can
even die," he said.
Amnesty
says the report was compiled using 500 interviews during 20 separate visits to
Nigeria since 2007.
"Across
the country, the scope and severity of torture inflicted on Nigeria's women,
men and children by the authorities supposed to protect them is shocking to
even the most hardened human rights observer," Amnesty's Netsanet Belay said in a statement.
The
24-year-old woman sexually assaulted with tear gas says the abuse has left her
with a permanent injury.
"A
policewoman took me to a small room, told me to remove everything I was
wearing. She spread my legs wide and fired tear gas into my vagina… I was asked
to confess that I was an armed robber… I was bleeding… up till now I still feel
pain in my womb," she said.
She
has been charged with theft and remains in custody awaiting trial 10 months
after her arrest.
Even
though torture is prohibited under the constitution, Amnesty notes that
Nigeria's politicians have yet to pass a bill to criminalise it.
It
says security forces enjoy a climate of impunity and the criminal justice
system is riddled with corruption.
Source:
http://www.bbc.com
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