Stopping Police Violence and Abuse in Nigeria

Stanley Ibe is part of the Open Society Justice Initiative’s legal team in Africa. I asked him to discuss Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse, and Extrajudicial Killings by the Nigeria Police Force, a recent report produced by the Justice Initiative and the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria.

What does this report reveal?

We have found some shocking levels of violence and abuse. People are dying at the hands of police officers. Torture routinely takes the place of proper investigation, and rape seems to be commonplace when the police arrest vulnerable women. Overall, the police in Nigeria are more likely to commit crimes that to prevent them.

That seems pretty extreme. How do you know that these findings aren’t just about a few bad apples?

This report is based on field monitoring conducted by NOPRIN—the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria—at over 400 police stations in fourteen states and territories across the country. It was a major effort. Research investigations were undertaken from February 2007 to January 2009, so the report is also based on observations over quite a long time, and we see consistent patterns. Beyond the fieldwork, the report draws on relevant legislation, case law, and official reports of high-level government commissions and investigations into policing in Nigeria. It also references newspaper articles and NGO reports. And what we see is widespread, systemic failure.

Why have things gotten so bad?

Well, for one thing, police in many cases lack the training and resources to do their job properly. There is no forensic capacity—not even one lab in Nigeria has working equipment to analyze fingerprints—so it is very difficult to do a proper investigation. This is not an excuse for torture—there is no excuse for that—but some of the police do seem to feel the pressure and will torture to extract a confession so that they can close a case. What we see is that sometimes, a person will go to the station to report a crime, and instead the police will suddenly turn them into a suspect.

What can be done?

President Jonathan and the rest of the government need to take reform seriously if they are going to improve safety and restore confidence in the police. We’ve set out several more detailed recommendations in the report, but among the most critical changes is the need to ensure that the Nigeria Police Force is free from presidential and political interference. Only an independent police force can foster professionalism. It is also essential to ensure that the police do not monopolize or interfere with investigations of crime and misconduct by their officers. Currently, many cases of police misconduct are overlooked because of political interference, or the expectation of it.

These measures need to be complemented by more robust external oversight. The Police Service Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the federal attorney general’s office, the courts, and other state and federal officials have to take shared responsibility for making the police more accountable and more effective. For example, we call for establishment of a federal prosecutorial unit to take on cases of police corruption and violence. We need to ensure that complaints are followed up and abuse is punished in order to change this culture of impunity.

Donor countries can also step up by responding to some of the material and infrastructure needs of the police, so they have the basic capacity to conduct proper investigations. But this will not have any effect if assistance is liable to be plundered or misappropriated. The police need a new culture of more transparent and accountable institutional management. So that aid is not wasted and we see real improvement, donor countries ought to insist on, and help develop, management and accountability mechanisms like the ones suggested in Criminal Force.