An international rights group, Avocats Sans Frontiers, France, also known as Lawyers Without Borders, say the Nigerian Police rely mostly on torture to obtain information from suspects.
The report was contained in a case-law hand book developed as part of the implementation of the ‘Promotion of the United Nations Convention Against Torture’ project.
The project was set up in the country by ASF France and its development partners, the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the Nigerian Bar Association.
The report notes that apart from torture, majority of suspects were detained for long period without being charged to court.
Part of the document reads: “In most of the cases handled by ASF France and its partners, the victims endured severe violence during their detention.
“Many persons” were beaten repeatedly by police officers in prison, some of them suffering particularly inhuman and degrading treatments.”
“It appears that such treatments are carried out commonly in several detention facilities by the police to obtain full confessions from detained persons.”
“In many cases, victims were detained for three or four years before they appear before a judge.”
The report further revealed the pitiable conditions of the police detention facilities, and also accused police officers of arresting relatives of suspects in cases where the accused persons are not available.
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