Rights groups have accused Nigerian troops and police of abuses, including extra-judicial killings, as they sought to quell deadly riots in northern Nigeria after the April 16 presidential poll. Police and military officials could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman for the governor in the hard-hit state of Kaduna denied the allegations.

New York-based Human Rights Watch and Civil Rights Congress, a local rights group based in the city of Kaduna, have separately accused soldiers and police of extra-judicial killings and other abuses. The abuses are alleged to have occurred in Kaduna and another northern city, Zaria, both of which were severely affected by the riots that Civil Rights Congress says killed more than 500 people. "In response to the post-election violence, troops and the police have been implicated in extra-judicial killings of unarmed residents," Eric Guttschuss, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who monitored the elections said. "Human Rights Watch has established documented extra-judicial killings in Kaduna and Zaria."

He added that police and soldiers carried out raids and rounded up suspects following the violence, and "there have been credible reports that the police and military have severely beaten arrested persons in their custody." Shehu Sani, the director of Civil Rights Congress, also alleged extra-judicial killings and other abuses. Sani said soldiers and police flogged residents of Kaduna and forced them to frog-jump and roll on the ground for defying a curfew imposed by the state government amid the violence. "These acts are gross violations of the residents? rights and dignity," Sani said. "We have documented such abuses in addition to extra-judicial killings of innocent residents by soldiers and the police."




The rights activists called for probes into the allegations. A spokesman for the Kaduna state governor dismissed the accusations as baseless and "a deliberate attempt to smear the image of the security personnel who have done an excellent job of restoring and maintaining peace in the state."

"The government has not received any complaints of abuse or extra-judicial killings from any residents, and if such alleged abuses have taken place there was no way they could have escaped the knowledge of the government," Reuben Buhari said. Violent protests erupted across Nigeria's mainly Muslim north over the election won by incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian. His main rival was ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north.
http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/nigeria-police-troops-abused-rioters-north

i can tell you more than 50 innocent people have been killed, that is more than 5 times the number of corpers killed, why does the government think they can fight wrong by doing wrong against anyone, most of them innocent that is the same that happened in maiduguri in '09 where anyone could by shot if working in the streets, b4stards, this is why people are starting to lose hope in the system

namfav:

i can tell you more than 50 innocent people have been killed, that is more than 5 times the number of corpers killed, why does the government think they can fight wrong by doing wrong against anyone, most of them innocent that is the same that happened in maiduguri in '09 where anyone could by shot if working in the streets, b4stards, this is why people are starting to lose hope in the system

the story itself makes me so angry at jonathan

i could have swown that he would not do this to his mend militants that kill nigerians in south working for oil companies

well his power will soon go, very soon

how many roiters are in the street and how many did they kill ,.,. rubbish

alj_harem:

the story itself makes me so angry at jonathan

i could have swown that he would not do this to his mend militants that kill nigerians in south working for oil companies

well his power will soon go, very soon

how many roiters are in the street and how many did they kill ,.,. rubbish

they don't regard our lives, 1 southern killed, and they go to kill 5 northerners that is the state, they believe northerners do not value human lives like in maiduguri they were killing people who have wives and children discriminately  it was even on al jazeera many people they kill are not even given trial, of course mend militans are not killed before trial like they do in the north, they give money to the family of the corpers even to mend militans who surrender, will they compensate the people and family of people they abused and killed in custody without a trial? (according to decleration of human rights which the federal government of nigeria respects everyone is innocen until proved guilty by law)

You will not see the ethnic bigots on this thread, they feel it is only the corpers that died in that unfortunate incidence.

hercules07:

You will not see the ethnic bigots on this thread, they feel it is only the corpers that died in that unfortunate incidence.

Just like the three posters above me.

namfav:

they don't regard our lives, 1 southern killed, and they go to kill 5 northerners that is the state, they believe northerners do not value human lives like in maiduguri they were killing people who have wives and children discriminately  it was even on al jazeera many people they kill are not even given trial, of course mend militans are not killed before trial like they do in the north, they give money to the family of the corpers even to mend militans who surrender, will they compensate the people and family of people they abused and killed in custody without a trial? (according to decleration of human rights which the federal government of nigeria respects everyone is innocen until proved guilty by law)

can u imagine, although it is been time since i last visited maiduguri

so now northern lives have less value than southern lives in nigeria now,.,.,. well i blame our northern leaders in every sense

they allow the media to write rubbish about us and also allow southern leaders to send troops up north to kill us like rams,  

if we voice out, they would say we are violent, so now should we keep quite and allow people just to be killing us ? NO

i was in ibandan sometimes last year, and a fulani man was killed, yet it did not hit the news

but once an igbo man is even bleeding , you would see the WORLD NIGERIA MEDIA voicing out

the sooner we remove PDP and likes of ciroma from the north the better.

this people are just enjoying the money and still not looking for our interest,

where is arewa to voice out for us ? no where, all they do is take money and keep shut

rubbish

babaearly:

Just like the three posters above me.

huh

alj_harem:

can u imagine, although it is been time since i last visited maiduguri

so now northern lives have less value than southern lives in nigeria now,.,.,. well i blame our northern leaders in every sense

they allow the media to write rubbish about us and also allow southern leaders to send troops up north to kill us like rams,  

if we voice out, they would say we are violent, so now should we keep quite and allow people just to be killing us ? NO

i was in ibandan sometimes last year, and a fulani man was killed, yet it did not hit the news

but once an igbo man is even bleeding , you would see the WORLD NIGERIA MEDIA voicing out

the sooner we remove PDP and likes of ciroma from the north the better.

this people are just enjoying the money and still not looking for our interest,

where is arewa to voice out for us ? no where, all they do is take money and keep shut

rubbish

it breaks my heart but it is true, the leaders we have in the north are turning out to be puppets each and every day when things like these happens, look at the comments by yuguda, i don't see how they became helpful, as long as they keep oil flowing they ignore our brothers getting slaughtered, someone has to defend these types of massacres, exactly, the media (from ss and se mostly) writes alot of cr4p, i heard atleast 10 northerners were killed and hurt in reprisal attacks no one even spoke about it, also the media in the north is not doing much we are supposed to investigate these things, it's still our people getting massacred, our leaders in the north have to act like they care or soon we will see serious problems in this country, you know more than 200 children were left orphaned after police massacred their fathers in bauchi in a matter of hours, we see the same thing again and again, this way we are raising our children in a society of anger, it does not look good, the youth in the north wants to get our grievances known but since we are just northerners, we will be ignored anyway many people in the south i wonder when they will value the opinions in the north in a enviroment of peace, do they want things to carry on until they get worse