Cape Town - Nigeria's police and
military routinely torture women, men
and children, some as young as 12,
human rights watchdog Amnesty
International said on Thursday.
Torture has become
"institutionalised", with police stations
having an informal "officer in charge
of torture," Amnesty said in a report
released in the capital, Abuja.
"Across the country, the scope and
severity of torture inflicted on women,
men and children by the authorities
supposed to protect them is shocking
to even the most hardened human
rights observer," said research and
advocacy director Netsanet Belay.
Torture techniques include shootings,
beatings, nail or tooth extractions,
choking, electric shocks, rape and
sexual violence.
Detainees are tortured as punishment,
to extort money or to extract
"confessions" as a shortcut to "solving"
cases, said the organisation, which
interviewed hundreds of victims and
gathered evidence over 10 years.
"A policewoman ... spread my legs
wide and fired tear gas into my
vagina ... I was asked to confess that I
was an armed robber ... I was
bleeding. ... I still feel pain in my
womb," Abosede, a 24-year-old torture
victim, told Amnesty.
Most of those detained are denied
access to the outside world, including
lawyers, families and courts.
Medieval witch hunt
The military, too, routinely tortures
prisoners, especially detainees
suspected to be a member of Islamist
terrorist group Boko Haram,
according to the report.
The search for Boko Haram fighters
had turned into a "medieval witch
hunt" that included torture as part of a
"screening process", said Belay.
Mahmood, 15, from northern Yobe
State, told Amnesty he was arrested
by soldiers alongside 50 others last
year, detained for three weeks, and
beaten repeatedly with the butt of a
gun, batons and machetes.
Soldiers poured melting plastic on his
back, made him walk and roll over
broken bottles and forced him to
watch extra-judicial executions.
Military also arrested and beat a 12-
year-old boy in Yobe State, poured
alcohol on him, forced him to clean
vomit with his bare hands and trod on
him, the report found.
Government has refused to properly
investigate torture allegations because
- although Nigeria's constitution
prohibits torture - it is not a criminal
offence.
"Parliament must immediately take
this long overdue step and pass a law
criminalizing torture," said Belay.