Torture of crime suspect: Judiciary to the rescue?

Besides, torture is still being used in over 100 countries in the world despite its absolute prohibition in international law several years ago.But the campaign against the use of torture gathered momentum on December 12, 1997, when the United Nations Organisation(UNO), by Resolution 52/149  advocated global condemnation of the act with a view to encouraging […]

Besides, torture is still being used in over 100 countries in the world despite its absolute prohibition in international law several years ago.
But the campaign against the use of torture gathered momentum on December 12, 1997, when the United Nations Organisation(UNO), by Resolution 52/149  advocated global condemnation of the act with a view to encouraging countries to discontinue same.
Nigeria, one of the frontline countries in the world, has not freed  torture from its lexicon as the practice continues unabated by security forces on crime suspects.
Police authorities  in the country had  battled hard to convince Nigerians that the use of  torture on suspects is alien to the police force, but Nigerians would rather wished that such story should be told to the marines in view of countless use of terror by the agents of the state.
A book, ‘Breaking Point-How Torture and the Police Cell System Violate Justice in the Criminal Investigation Process in Nigeria’, written by Leonard Dibia and Kayode Ogunbunmi, outlined  four methods police in the country employ in torturing suspects.
One of these is called third degree method in which the victim is made to lie face down, while his legs are then folded upwards at the knees and tied together at the ankles, and his arms are raised upwards and tied together at the wrists.
A pipe or rod, attached at its ends to a rope hanging from ceiling fan hook in the ceiling, is passed between both legs and arms as the suspect is raised towards the ceiling by pulling at the loose end of the rope until he is suspended in the air in the form of a human bow.
According to the book, another method of torturing suspect is through the use of ceiling fan hook in which the interrogating officer ties the suspect’s legs at the ankles, loops the rope through the fan hook, and raises the suspect with his head pointing earthward by pulling at the loose end of the rope. Beating and other means of  inflicting pain then followed.
The next method of torture entails forcing the suspect to sit upon a board of spikes or nails pointing upward, after beating him in his legs to weaken them and make them less able to support his weight.
One of the victims  of this method, Emika Tanimola, who was tortured  over alleged theft of tape recorder  by Police at Karu Police Station, FCT, Abuja, narrated his ordeal in the book thus: “I was beaten at the ankles with batons by the police officer who investigated the case. I was beaten up to a point when I could not stand up. But they also asked me to sit on an iron that has two pointed mouth like knives .As I tried  to sit on the iron, I fell down again and bled profusely. They asked me to confess that I was the one who stole the  video cassette and recorder. I did not confess, because I was not guilty.’’
The authors also wrote that police often subject suspects to the ashasha method, in which they are stripped of all but their shirt or other upper garment as well as stripped the suspect  naked irrespective of the victim’s sex.
According to the authors, a 23- year- old Regina Obi and Salome Ike,21,both salesgirls, were arrested by police from Adeniji Adele Police Division in Lagos on a charge of stealing their master’s property.
The police officers, the salesgirls said, stripped  them naked and left them in that state for over five hours of interrogation, after which they infused gaseous substances into their vagina
The cases of torture in the country in recent times are inexhaustive, while the number of the victims of the dehumanisation grew phenomenally in the last few years
For instance, a non-governmental organisation, Avocats Sans Frontières France, also known as Lawyers Beyond Borders said, in 2014, it documented and rendered free legal services to 57 victims of torture across three states in Nigeria: Enugu, Kaduna and Plateau.
It said notably, all 19 of these cases of victims documented in Enugu State had gunshot wounds inflicted by security forces highlighting a very dangerous trend in the state, adding that victims are left in deplorable detention conditions with no access to adequate medical attention for the wounds.
 But the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kenneth Nwosu, has dismissed the allegations with the wave of the hand, saying that policemen attached to the Lagos Command do not torture suspects.
According to him, injuries found on the bodies of suspects may have been incurred while trying to escape arrest or during exchange of gun fire with the police.
Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) stated that Investigating Police Officers interrogate their suspects and do not necessarily employ the use of torture.
“There is  no portion in the police Act that says that a policeman must use torture to extract information from any suspect. The Lagos State Police Command frowns at it and does not and will not encourage any of its officers to torture any suspect,” he added.
Lagos-based human rights lawyer, and head of Steven and Solomon Foundation, Chief Gabriel Giwa-Amu, said he had been forced to file human rights abuse cases against some policemen in the past.
He alleged that some policemen for pecuniary reasons would arrest an innocent person, make him go through torture as a way of satisfying their pay masters.
“A case in point is the recent invasion of Ewu Oloye and Gbosoro farmlands both at Sagamu area of Ogun State by some thugs in company of policemen.
“The villagers, including the Baale were brutalised by the policemen. Some were taken away but were later released . How can such policemen operate within the limit of the Act?” he added.
A policeman attached to Ajeromi Police Station, Ajegunle in Lagos, who pleaded anonymity, said that most criminals are under oath not to reveal anything about the identities of their members or previous operations embarked upon.
“Most criminals are members of cult groups. Before joining they are made to go through some rituals during which their leader administers on them oath of secrecy. After this ritual exercise they see their leader as strong and invisible and could reach anybody who betrays them, even while in police custody.
“When one or more persons from this gang are arrested, they prefer to die with any information than to be tortured by their gang members,” he added.
Another policemen attached to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti Street, Yaba, explained that the crime world is a borderless world where one criminal belongs to a gang but must have participate in various operations along with other gang members.
“To them what is of interest is what their interest is. A criminal who may have embarked on an operation with his gang members might likely go on another with his friend who belongs to another group provided the stake is high.
“We have had cases where a wanted criminal is arrested along with other gang members. He will be in our cell without us knowing that he is the one on our wanted list. Once arrested news will go to his members that he is in police cell. But we will come to know of his presence in our cell if a member of his original gang is arrested and during confessional statement would revealed that the person we are looking for is already with us,” he said.
There are increased  calls by stakeholders in the judicial sector for the nation’s judiciary to nip in the bud the practice of torture and protect suspects against undue dehumanisation of suspects.
For instance, existing laws such as Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, sections 130 ,198  and Section 365 of the Criminal Code as well as sections 144 and 125 of the Criminal Act of the Southern States of Nigeria empower the judiciary and its officers to exercise its full powers to prevent torture of  suspects by law enforcement agents.
But   Leonard Dibia and Kayode Ogunbunmi, wrote in the book that the existing laws failed to nip  torture in the bud  because judicial officers fail to note indications of the use of torture in police investigations and to employ the powers vested in them by the safeguard provisions to take action against it in such cases.
The authors also said the existing laws are weakened by the  absence of mechanisms to monitor the practices of law enforcement and security agencies to detect the use of torture  and degrading treatment in investigative processes.
Former chairman, National Human Rights Commission, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, said  the role  of the judiciary against torture has been at best reactive and advocated the need  to vigorously explore how the judiciary can assume a role in preventing, alongside remediating, the infliction of torture.
As a way out of preventing torture, the authors suggested the need to sensitise and empower the judiciary to take assertive action against the use of torture and that improved concern of judicial officers about pre-trial investigative abuses should, even without the necessity of ratifying legislation, establish procedural and practical standards that will discourage the violation of civil liberties in the investigation process.
 Avocats Sans Frontières France in its view, said justice for victims of torture in Nigeria must include the punishment of perpetrators of the acts of torture.
It said  state and non-state actors in Nigeria must stand united in denouncing torture for what it is: a despicable crime which dehumanises victims.
 It therefore implored  President Muhammadu  Buhari to speedily assent to the anti-torture bill already passed by the National Assembly in its 7th legislative year, adding that with this law, offenders can now be held individually accountable for their acts.
Nigerians are therefore earnestly waiting for the strengthening of such laws against torture that would not only size up the Gestapo-like  style of law enforcement and security agents but also build a  virile heritage where the rule of law is the hallmark of the society.