Nigerian police a ‘threat to public’: report

Through personal experiences, I have resolved that until sanity is restored in the system, Nigerians are better self-protected than rely on the so-called Nigerian Police. Though good ones still exist, the bad eggs have caused much damage on the image of the judicial force. They have harrased me on various occassions hence my decision to post this article upon first sight. From Gulf Times, here comes a vital news:

Published: Tuesday, 11 December, 2007, 08:01 AM Doha Time

ABUJA: Nigerian police are a danger to public safety because they consider extra-judicial killings an acceptable policing method and raping women as a fringe benefit, a report by a Nigerian civil rights group said.The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) said it had monitored 400 police stations in 13 states for a year and found that killings, torture, extortion and rape had become routine because the authorities shielded policemen from the law.

The findings, reported in Nigerian newspapers yesterday, come after chief of police Mike Okiro said last month his men had killed 785 armed robbery suspects in his first three months in office. His comments drew criticism from Human Rights Watch.Okiro was promoted a few days after the announcement. He has defended the killings as an appropriate response to frequent armed robberies. Nigerian police have been killing suspects at a similar pace for several years, its own statistics show.

The police deny that they practice torture, although former president Olusegun Obasanjo once recognised that they did.“President Umaru Yar’Adua’s commitment to the rule of law rings hollow as long as his administration takes no steps to bring an end to the epidemic of police killings and other abuses,” said NOPRIN’s co-ordinator Emeka Nwanevu. “A police force that kills this number of people cannot guarantee public safety.”UN experts have said the police often open fire when there is no reason to, get away with murdering innocent people by labelling them “armed robbers” and torture suspects by shooting them in the legs and letting their wounds fester.NOPRIN said it had found rapes by policemen were on the increase. It quoted a policeman interviewed in Lagos as saying he considered that raping sex workers was “one of the fringe benefits attached to night patrol”. – Reuters

Now, it'll interest you more when you read my article here: http://kbthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/01/harrased-by-nigerian-police.html