Blood in their eyes

Earlier this month (February 11 & 12), a public tribunal on police abuse of human rights in the southeast geo-political zone of Nigeria sat in Enugu. The 5-man tribunal, chaired by Saji Dahiru, a lawyer in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), presided over more than twenty cases of torture, rape and extra-judicial killings by the police in the five South-east states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. The public tribunal is otherwise called the People’s Court, and it is supported by the Open Society Justice Initiative, Abuja, and the Security Justice and Growth Program of the DFID. (Picture shows Mrs. Uwa who was shot dead in Onitsha, Anambra state by a combined team of policemen and soldiers)

Most of the testimonies from victims of police abuses and extra-judicial killings before the tribunal were as grisly as they were tear-evoking. An instance was the torture of 23 year old Ikechukwu Iyaka, an indigene of Umuguma, Owerri council area of Imo state. Ikechukwu had parked his commercial motorcycle (alias Okada) to eat at a restaurant in the city when a policeman by name, Ayan, walked up to him and invited him to see his boss at the police station.

Because he felt he was innocent of any crime for which the police could be looking for him, Ikechukwu turned down the invitation. But the cop snatched his motorcycle’s key and zoomed off on it. Ikechukwu ignored the policeman, but moved to reclaim his bike when he saw him cruising away on yet another motorcycle a few days later. Ikechukwu thus halted Ayan and demanded the motorbike he was driving in exchange for his own which he earlier took away.

In response, the policeman thundered some slaps on Ikechukwu’s cheeks, but Ikechukwu retaliated, slapping him back. The situation, of course, led to a fight between the duo. Thereafter, Ayan (the policeman) left, promising to come back to the scene. Sensing danger, Ikechukwu fled home for days, but was to be later apprehended by police officers, including Ayan, who had been trailing him.

Ayan shot him on the stomach, and immediately, his intestines gushed out. Another police officer, also, shot him twice on the chest, and he fell down in the pool of his blood. The cops bolted taking him for dead! Ikechukwu later regained consciousness, and tried to push back his gushed out intestines inside his stomach. Help came and Ikechukwu was rushed to the hospital. Till today, the ill-fated lad continues to grapple with one health problem or the other following the deadly attacks on him.

A medical doctor, Umeh Tyndale, had a similar shocking story to tell the People’s Court. The medical practitioner was, on June 28, 2006, shot and badly wounded by a joint army and police patrol in Onitsha, Anambra state. He was returning from work when the patrol team halted him. Despite his having presented his identity card, explaining that he was from call duty, the team flung away the card, insisting that he was a member of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

While the physician tried to convince the operatives that he had nothing to do with MASSOB, a soldier shot him in the leg, followed by a stab (with knife) in the neck by another. He was to be later rescued and taken to hospital by a sympathetic soldier who was passing by at the time. The medical doctor, at the moment, uses crutches after he had undergone several surgeries.

The tribunal was treated to another grisly heart-rending tale by Miss Ginika Omeh, a fuel attendant at Bez Filling Station in Nsukka. The boss of 18 year old Ginika, Nnamdi Ilo, had, on September 15 last year, given her the sum of N538, 580 to lodge into his bank account. But some men attacked Ginika on her way to the bank and snatched the money from her. Ginika hurried back to her boss, reported the incident, telling him that one of the hoodlums looked like one of the three men he was drinking beer with when she was leaving for bank, but Ilo rejected the damsel’s story, insisting that she must produce the money.

Subsequently, her boss took her to an herbalist called Bernard Iyioke who, after some rituals, came out with a verdict that she was a thief. Despite her innocent plea, the duo of her boss and the herbalist held on to their position that she stole the money and should return it. As Ginika continued to deny involvement in the crime, the herbalist ordered some men present to strip Ginika naked. And stripped stark naked, the herbalist administered some concoction on Ginika. Ginika told the tribunal that she had, since after taking the concoction, been suffering loss of memory.

The concoction administration notwithstanding, Ginika’s boss took her to the notorious Enugu State Anti-Robbery Squad so as to force her to pay the money. Ginika was detained at the station. According to her, every night the policemen serially raped her. Ginika, particularly, mentioned Jude Abanajelo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and head of the SARS’ team, and another police officer as those who subjected her to rape. Ginika said she collapsed one night amidst these bouts of sex, and had to be rushed to hospital. The ill-fated girl, also, testified that the policemen regularly slapped her until she could no longer hear with her left ear.

The touching testimonies were endless! There was the case of extra-judicial killing of Chinedu Nwoye as presented to the tribunal by Sam Mba, a legal practitioner based in Enugu. Nwoye was murdered on August 1, 2005 on Ogui Road in the metropolis. Mba recalled how 28 year Chinedu Ani and Chinedu Nwoye (25), his friend, had accosted Prince U.S.A Igwesi, one time member of House of Representatives, and solicited financial assistance from him.

But Hon. Igwesi, rather than assist the young men who, of course, he was very familiar with, talked down on them. The boys got angry, and shouted back at Igwesi as they drove away in their Mercedes Benz car. Igwesi, subsequently, sped to Ogui Police Station and lodged a report of attempted armed robbery attack against the boys. On sighting the boys, the law maker and two police officers, identified as Sgt Momoh and Constable Chidi Ibe, went after them. The policemen opened fire at the boys, killing Ani and wounding Nwoye.

Although the then government of Chimaroke Nnamani in Enugu state set up a tribunal to probe the incident, no white paper was released until Nnamani left office.

Awfarkansi Nnadiume, a legal practitioner, in his own testimony on behalf of a victim of police extra-judicial killing, Ekene Elemchi, accused the SARS of habitually torturing its detainees. In particular, the lawyer accused the squad of subjecting 18 clients of his to merciless torture in the name of eliciting confessions from them. Nnadiume, specifically, singled out Abanajelo and one other police officer called Godspower for their notoriety in torturing detainees.

According to the counsel, Elemchi, was tortured to death in custody on August 5 last year. Elemchi, he said, collapsed, and the men took him to a hospital where he died a few hours later. But the death of the young man in detention did not deter the policemen, as they intensified their threats against the remaining suspects, threatening that they would die like Elemchi if they did not confess.

The squad, Awfarkansi stated, does not have regard for the rule of law nor even for superior police officers. He added that the officers refused to charge suspects to court, as they used to shoot them at will.

The tribunal, also, heard the report of police killing of Mrs Chioma Uwa, a middle age pregnant woman. Mrs. Uwa was killed in Onitsha, Anambra state on July 6, 2006. The woman was shot dead by a member of the joint police and army patrol team who patrolled the town during a face-off between MASSOB and security agencies.

The People’s Court took time to make appropriate recommendations for the testimonies. It is important to disclose that, for inexplicable reasons, the police was not represented in the tribunal. This could, possibly, be as a result of the fact that the body seldom has any defense whenever it comes to issues of torture and extra-judicial killings. In almost all the recommendations, however, the tribunal prescribed further inquiries into the reports and commensurate reprisals against the culpable police officers.

Although it does appear this tribunal has no force of law, it has evidently exposed the atrocious deeds of the police against Nigerians. Is it not lamentable and, of course, paradoxical that police officers, recruited and sustained with public funds, would turn round to turn killers of the people? The primary responsibility of the police is to protect lives and property of the citizenry. But is it not benumbing enough that this same group turn around to destroy and plunder lives and property of the very people they are paid to protect?

KlinReports urges Nigerian government to adopt recommendations of this tribunal, and ensure their implementation to the letter in order to ensure that justice is done in all the cases. The government could, also, set up its own tribunal to look into the soaring cases of torture and extra-judicial killings, with a view to curbing the menace. This trend must not be allowed to continue.