The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Rights abuse

  • NHRC warns police, others against rights abuse

    •Commission threatens six years jail, N100,000 fine

    THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has warned that it will henceforth penalise any law enforcement agent or agency involved in the violation of the rights of suspects and accused persons.

    The NHRC said law enforcement officer found to have violated such detainees’ right would be subjected to “punishment of six months imprisonment or a fine of N100,000 or both under the NHRC Act 1995 as amended”.

    The warning is contained in a directive the NHRC issued in fulfilment of its mandate to deal with all matters relating to the promotion and protection of human rights, and other functions as provided for under its enabling Act (as amended).

    The document titled: Directive NHRC/001/2018: Directive for treatment of accused persons and suspects by law enforcement officers,” was signed by NHRC Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu.

    The commission said the directive was informed by its observation that law enforcement officers “arrest accused persons without respect for the dignity of their person, disregard court orders while investigating or trying some accused persons, prosecute some accused persons without respect for their right to health and life or fair opportunity of stable health condition to understand their offences and charges to defend themselves etc”.

    Calling for a paradigm shift in the procedure and processes of law enforcement, the NHRC noted that suspects and accused persons have obligation to cooperate with law enforcement agencies and their personnel while carrying out law enforcement duties.

    Part of the directive reads: “That law enforcement agencies and their personnel have the duty, responsibility and obligation to respect all the rights of suspects and accused persons while exercising their investigative and prosecutorial powers under the law.

    Accordingly, the commission said:

    • That law enforcement in flagrant disrespect for human rights is unlawful under the laws of Nigeria;
    • That all law enforcement agencies and their officers should henceforth enforce the Constitution and other laws of Nigeria with due respect for human rights; and
    • That any such disrespect for human rights by law enforcement agencies or officers will be roundly condemned and accountability for such disrespect will be demanded from erring law enforcement agencies and personally from the enforcement officer(s).

     

     

     

     

  • Rights abuse: Court slams military N1m fine, orders apology to Nollywood actress

    A Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has found the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, guilty of human rights violation against an actress and movie producer, Ebere Ohakwe, popularly known as Jewel Infinity. The court awarded N1 million in favour of Ohakwe against the army and ordered the Division to tender an unreserved apology to the applicant. The trial Judge, Justice Adamu Turaki Mohammed, of High Court 5, made the order in his judgement, after examining the submissions of the parties involved in the matter.

    Justice Mohammed noted that the applicant proved her case, adding that she was entitled to reliefs she sought, and restrained the defendants from carrying out further unlawful actions against her. He stated: “Counsels submitted that the applicant has proved her case and is entitled to all the reliefs sought. Consequently, I resolve the issue in favour of the applicant and make the following order. “One, it is, hereby, declared that the arrest, harassment, embarrassment, torture and assault meted on the applicant by the first, second and third respondents and other officers of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on the 13th day of January 2017, is unconstitutional and a violation of the dignity of human life.

  • DPOs trained to stop torture and rights abuse

    Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) from the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP) to Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) in charge of 107 police divisions in the Lagos State Police Command were on Monday 5, October, at Dover Hotel Ikeja, Lagos, trained to stop torture of suspects and complainants and abuse of their fundamental human rights during arrest, investigation and detention in police cell. The training also extended to close of case, charging suspects to court or releasing them on bail.

    The training titled Human Rights Sensitisation Workshop for Divisional Police Officers was sponsored by Switzerland which was represented by their Human Security Adviser, the Embassy of Switzerland to Nigeria, Chad and Niger, Jasna Lazarevic; PRAWA, a human rights organisation represented by their executive director Uju Agomoh; United Nations Officer on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).

    The training focused on introduction to human rights with recommended books like NPF Human Rights Manual and NPF Human Rights Trainers’ Guide, two, Human Rights and the Police, The use of Force and Firearm, Gender and Human Rights, Human Rights, Access to Information and Accountability, Children’s Rights and Rights of Persons under Detention and Prevention of Torture.

    Others include Human Rights, Civil Disorders and Terrorism, Guidelines for Selected Police Interventions, Human Rights and Policing Election, Speeding up Criminal Justice Process and Human Rights and Nigeria Police Human Rights Desks with recommended books and seasoned lecturers which included ACP Wareb Owotorufa of Nigeria Police Force, Uju Osude of PRAWA, Mr. Chinedu Nwagu from University of Pretoria, Mrs. Ogechi Ogu of Olive Justice Initiative, Dr. Uju Agomoh of PRAWA, Barrister Ogechi Ogu of Olive Justice Initiative and Dr. Lydia Umar of GAT.

    In an interview, Jasna said she believed that the training would help policemen and officers to respect human rights while carrying out their duties. She also suggested constant monitoring of police officers by their superiors and external bodies like Human Rights Commission and others to see that policemen and officers are human rights-compliant after the training as they would end up being trainers to their fellow police officers who had not attended the training.

    The Assistant Inspector General of Police Training and Development based at Abuja, AIG Femi Adenaike, said what motivated them to embark on the workshop was that they wanted to move with time as “the new government is for change and for the public to accept us we have to be part of the change and the Inspector General of Police IGP Solomon Arase has marked out some programmes for us to meet up with the present challenges which at the end every policeman will gain”.

    AIG Femi also said the workshop will also help to remind every police officer that we are working for Inspector General of Police and that any action or inaction will affect the entire Nigeria police.

    The Commissioner of Police Lagos State Police Command, Fatai Owoseni, said that Nigeria police officers had always performed excellently on foreign missions and expressed optimism that the police officers will gain much from the training.

    Agomoh, the executive director of PRAWA, revealed that the workshop started from Abuja to Enugu, then Lagos and it was their plan to see that all the zones in the Federation benefit from the workshop, adding that human rights pursuits is positive in Nigeria and is 20 years plan today.

  • Rights abuse: Journalist seeks to join Customs boss in suit

    A journalist, Mr Innocent Nwachukwu, has prayed the Federal High Court in Lagos to join the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and its Comptroller-General Alhaji Abdullahi Inde in his suit against the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

    His lawyer, Aloy Ezenduka, while moving the application, urged Justice Mohammed Yunusu to join NCS and Inde as third and fourth respondents because they are “necessary parties.”

    Nwachukwu, who is the publisher of Tentacles magazine, filed the fundamental rights enforcement action following his alleged arrest and detention by the DSS in an underground cell for 17 days.

    He said last December 14, the DSS invited him to its headquarters following a publication in his magazine relating to Inde, and had been harassing him and visiting his homes in Lagos and Abia with a view to arresting and detaining him over the publication.

    He said matters got to a head on January 14 when seven heavily armed and hooded DSS officers, in Gestapo style, arrested and beat him and his dependents up in spite of a subsisting court order against his arrest.

    The applicant is seeking a declaration that his arrest, handcuffing, being forcibly taken to DSS office at Shangisha blindfolded violated his rights. He said he was later transferred to DSS headquarters at Abuja by road in hand cuffs and blindfold, and was physically and psychologically tortured.

    He is also praying the court to declare that the removal of computers and other documents from his home without warrant “based on the malicious, trumped up and unsubstantiated allegation/petition of one Alhaji Abdullahi Diko Inde” is unlawful and amounts to gross abuse of power.

    The applicant is demanding N500million as general damages against Customs and Inde “for instigating the unlawful arrest, public humiliation and detention in an underground cell at the headquarters of the first respondent (DSS) for 17 days and the denial of the consorts of his three young children without any form of care…”

    Nwachukwu said the DSS operatives kicked him in the stomach and groin severally and denied him access to his lawyers while accusing him of being a blackmailer and an extortionist, which he said were defamatory and libelous.

    He said his arrest was “intended to gag the applicant, disrupt the practice of his profession and stop him from further publishing the dirty scandals surrounding the third and fourth respondents, especially the fourth respondent Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde…”

    Nwachukwu was first invited after he published a story entitled: 20 obstacles against Jonathan’s election. Subsequently, the DSS said his arrest was due to Inde’s petition.

    DSS has objected to the application seeking to join NCS and Inde, saying the plaintiff’s cause of action does not involve the two.

    Justice Yunusa adjourned till October 26 for ruling on the motion to amend the statement of facts.