A video by Sahara Reporters circulating on the web has shown a group of suspected kidnappers chained to back of a police vehicle struggling to survive with their private parts bloodied from being shot off by the police.
The police have verified the authenticity of the video and stated that the kidnappers were the first to open fire on the Intelligence Response Team as they tried to free a victim of the kidnappers in Abia State last week.
Geoffrey Ogbonna, deputy superintendent of police in Abia, told PREMIUM TIMES in response to the video obtained by Sahara Reporters. “In the course of the shootout, some of the kidnappers sustained injuries and were overpowered,”
He put the number of the suspects at ‘over 7’ and vaguely identified the victim as a 76-year-old man with a history of hypertension.
The victim although successfully rescued later died at the hospital, having allegedly been tortured by the kidnappers in their hideout Mr. Ogbonna said.
The officers recovered AK-47 guns, ammunition, and three vehicles from the suspects.
The video believed to have been shot on December 11 or 12 was released by Sahara Reporters to an outraged audience.
Officers crowding round a truck marked as belonging to the police in Abia State and in which the suspected had been crammed jeered and jested
“You wan turn millionaire overnight, bah?” an officer stated mockingly in Nigerian Pidgin. “You want to get rich quick.”
“This one wants to die,” another voice interrupts. “Na death e dey wait for like this; e dey struggle the thing.”
The Nigerian police have for many years now been portrayed consistently as abusive to human rights, and this video would only lead to cement that view
An inquiry by The Human Rights Watch in 2007 found that Nigerian Policemen have killed over 10,000 citizens in the course of duty, a conservative estimate at best.
Mr. Ogbonna avoided answering questions about why the officers shot the suspects in the testicles after already overpowering them. He could also not defend the taunting remarks of the officers, or give figure to how many suspects died if any at all and to whether they have thus received any medical care.
All this amidst tensions as claims grow against the Special Anti Robbery squad for extra-judicial killings and robberies, although a separate unit from the Intelligence Response Team, activists see the gruesome act as common to all police.
Okechukwu Nwanguma of the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) stated
“This is a clear case of torture and extra-judicial execution,”
“The unimaginable level of atrocities being allegedly perpetrated by police officers every day in Nigeria, considering that most of the gruesome abuses and execution hardly make it to the public domain.”
“The duty of the police is to arrest, investigate and produce accused persons to court for fair trial,” “Executing crime suspects extra-judicially is both unlawful and criminal.”
He has said the police administration and the Nigerian government need to act to find a solution to the escalation of police brutality before it is too late.
“The case underscores the need for the police hierarchy to demonstrate that they are serious about their promise to reform the institution,” said Mr. Nwanguma, whose organization has tracked numerous cases of abuses by the police for many years.
“Part of this reform would be to bring officers responsible for this and similar egregious violations to a public trial in order to send out a clear message that the police as an institution does not tolerate human rights atrocities,”
see video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=pYTJWQaTaJQ
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