Nigerian police detail officers to torture and rape, rights group report says

Torture is so common in Nigeria’s police force that many police stations have a designated officer to carry out atrocities such as pulling teeth, choking, raping and delivering electric shocks to detainees, Amnesty International said on Thursday. In a report titled “Welcome to Hellfire”, the human rights organisation said police routinely used torture to extort cash or extract confessions from suspects, even some as young as 12. Doing so does not even break the law, Amnesty said, as Nigeria has yet to pass legislation criminalising torture.

Across the country, the scope and severity of torture inflicted on Nigeria’s women, men and children by the authorities supposed to protect them is shocking to even the most hardened human rights observer.

Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International research director

Nigeria’s police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu dismissed the report as containing “blatant falsehoods and innuendoes”, and said Amnesty had made no efforts to speak to police authorities. Some alleged abuses were linked to the five-year insurgency in the country’s northeast by Boko Haram militants, but Amnesty said they were by no means restricted to it, as torture was practiced throughout the nation of 170 million people.

Torture or ill-treatment is not, repeat, not an official policy of the Nigeria police.

Emmanuel Ojukwu, Nigeria police spokesman

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