A HISTORY OF POLICE BRUTALITY IN NIGERIA
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A HISTORY OF POLICE BRUTALITY IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This research looked at the history of police brutality in Nigeria, with a focus on SARS from 1992 to 2020. The spate of violent and unlawful killings by personnel of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Unit of the Nigerian Police in the country’s South West area has not only called into question the police’s efficiency in carrying out their tasks, but has also severely harmed human security.
As a result of the state’s lawlessness, citizens have developed hostile relationships, exacerbating the security challenge in all implications. Most of the killings have been found to be common in Lagos, Osun, Oyo, and Ogun States in the region, which have recently produced a lot of social media and physical demonstrations by the public, but the scourge persists.
Several young and adult Nigerians, including students, football players, private and commercial drivers, and others, have had their lives cut short in the pursuit of the ‘Yahoo guys’ and bribe-taking.
The study investigates the instances and trends of violent and unlawful killings of civilians in the country by officers of the Nigeria Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, as well as the factors that precipitated the brutality.
It also investigates the threats posed by the criminal acts to the peace and security in Southwest Nigeria and national security. According to the study’s findings, violent/unlawful killings occur as a result of unprofessionalism,
a lack of funds/resources, uncontrolled anger/emotions, corruption, unprofessionalism, use of illicit drugs, drinking of alcohol while on duty, and other factors on the part of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) officers, as well as the absence of Police reforms in Nigeria.
The study makes use of social contract and failed state theories. The study concludes, however, that the Nigerian government should brace itself in ensuring adequate security of lives and property for her citizens,
the need for urgent Nigeria Police reforms in the country, the adoption of merit in the recruitment process into the Force, fighting corruption to the core, and other measures to combat the menace.
CHAPITRE ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the research
The police are your buddy, as the cliché goes. In a country like Nigeria, however, the opposite is true. It is clear that the average public views the police officer negatively and not as a friend (Omilana, 2019). Police officers around the world are governmental authorities tasked with enforcing the law and maintaining social order.
When carrying out their duties, the police may be authorised to use reasonable force when necessary. The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s constitution, the Police Act, international agreements, professional ethics, and other statutes control and constrain the use of force by police in carrying out their statutory tasks (Taiwo, 2018).
Despite these regulations, police in many societies use extreme force beyond the limits permitted by law in carrying out their duties, grossly disregarding the rule of law and resorting to extra-judicial killings, torture,
and subjecting civilians or citizens to all manner of inhumane and ill-treatment; unfortunately, the same citizens that they have previously sworn to protect (Segun, 2016).
Brutality has been described as one of the most extreme forms of violence, with both psychological and physical consequences (Constanzo & Gerrity, 2009; Makwerere et al., 2012; Justice Project Pakistan, 2014).
Torture and other forms of violent abuse have been demonstrated in empirical studies to have long-term harmful impacts on both survivors and perpetrators, and to be useless for gaining trustworthy information during interrogation (Egede, 2007; Constanzo & Gerrity, 2009).
Unlawful or extrajudicial killings, as the term implies, refer to killings that occur outside the confines of the law, and the recent increase in the threat, torture, degrading, and inhumane treatment of citizens in the society by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) reveals a need for the criminal justice system to be evaluated in order to prevent judicial usurpation and a lack of reverence for constituted authority,
which could result in the complete breakdown of law and order In order to bring to light the extent of the unlawful killings committed by officials of the Nigerian Police, particularly the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria. In the same line, multiple cases of extrajudicial killings by SARS officers in the region must be investigated.
Nigerian citizens are brutalised in a variety of ways, including: beating, indiscriminate shooting, maiming and killing of citizens, unnecessary restraints such as handcuffs and leg chains,
unnecessary use of firearms against suspects and innocent members of the public, torture of suspects to forcefully extract confessions, and extortion of gratification (Human Rights Watch, 2018).
One of the main challenges for the civilian government that took power in Nigeria in 1999, following the election of Olusegun Obasanjo as Head of State, was to ensure the respect and protection of human rights, as both the Nigerian armed forces and the Nigeria Police Force had been responsible for numerous human rights violations during the previous period of military rule (Chrisantus, 2019).
This difficulty has gotten so severe in the Nigerian Police’s approach to fighting crime during the last two decades (Amnesty International, 2019). The expansion of federal police anti-crime operations has resulted in extrajudicial executions, deaths in custody, acts of torture, and harsh, inhuman, and degrading treatment in police detention centres around the country (CLEEN Foundation, 2016).
The public’s concern about crime has raised the pressure on police to apprehend as many armed robbers as possible. However, the public uproar has been used by Nigerian police to systematically legitimise human rights violations as a necessary aspect of the fight against crime (Chrisantus, 2019).
It is worth noting that by ratifying the Convention Against Torture in June 2001, Nigeria reaffirmed the commitment it made when ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights to prevent its security forces from committing torture and other forms of ill treatment under all circumstances and without exception (Amnesty International, 2017). Torture is defined in Article 1 of the Convention Against Torture as:
”….Any act in which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for purposes such as obtaining information or a confession from him or a third person,
punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any other reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instig
According to the Nigerian constitution, “every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly-(a) no one shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment” (Human Rights Watch, 2010).
Similarly, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, to which Nigeria is a member, provides that “every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and the recognition of his or her legal status.”
All forms of human exploitation and degradation, including slavery, slave trade, torture, and harsh, inhuman, or humiliating punishment or treatment, are forbidden (Human Rights Watch, 2018).
However, the practise continues to be incompatible with the need to ban torture, since there are numerous incidents of police brutality and flagrant violation of human rights committed in public, particularly by personnel of the SARS unit under the cover of combating crime in society. SARS has been accused of extortion, abuse, and mistreatment.
It is carried out with a pattern of abuse of power by SARS agents and the Nigerian authorities’ repeated failure to bring perpetrators to justice (Oshinnaike, 2020). This demonstrates the flaws in Nigerian police accountability, which lead to and perpetuate these abuses.
Torture methods used on detainees in SARS custody include hanging, mock execution, beating, punching, and kicking, burning with cigarettes, water boarding, near-asphyxiation with plastic bags,
forcing prisoners to undergo stressful physical positions, and sexual assault. Between January 2017 and May 2020, Amnesty International documented 82 cases (Amnesty International, 2020).
It is astonishing that few cases have been examined and that few officers have been brought to justice for torture and other ill-treatment. In the few circumstances where cases got public, police officials frequently promised investigations. However, Amnesty International discovered that no investigation or conviction of criminals occurred in any of the documented cases.
The Nigerian Federal Government has consistently vowed to overhaul SARS (Omokolade, 2020). On 14 August 2018, the Nigerian Vice-President ordered the rapid reform of SARS, citing the enormous public outrage against their actions as the justification (Premium Times, 2020).
He also asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to form a judicial panel to look into SARS’ potential illegal conduct. After a few hours, the police authority proposed a series of reform initiatives intended at strengthening SARS’ public accountability for its operations (Paquette, 2020).
The steps include changing the name of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), appointing a high-ranking police official to oversee FSARS activities, and limiting FSARS operations to the prevention of armed robbery and kidnapping.
Despite these assurances of reform and accountability for infractions, SARS agents continue to torture and abuse detainees in their custody with complete impunity (CLEEN Foundation, 2018). Amnesty International (2020) believes that SARS officers’ continued impunity for human rights violations reflects deficiencies in policing practise
and the absence of an effective police accountability system, as reflected in the federal government’s lack of political will to effect reform, which culminated in the recent protest and mass looting of property and destruction of government infrastructures. As a result, this research is being conducted on the history of police brutality in Nigeria.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Police brutality, the use of torture as an interrogation method, and other flagrant violations of human rights continue to be fundamental weaknesses in the Nigeria Police Force, attracting public odium, opprobrium, and criticism (Amnesty International, 2015; Ogunode, 2015).
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a squad of the Nigerian police entrusted with combating violent crimes such as robbery and kidnapping, has been known to utilise brutality and other forms of violence against the people in order to gather information.
It continues to torture and violate human rights while carrying out their law enforcement tasks. This has sparked widespread outrage and has been criticised at all levels (Makwerere et al., 2012).
The increased brutality of the police and violations of human rights have resulted in recent protests by Nigerian youths against SARS extra-judicial killings, which have been reignited by a video shared on social media showing a SARS officer assaulting a young Nigerian in Delta State on October 3, 2020.
Following that, several other photographs and videos of SARS agents committing similar assaults and extortion resurfaced on social media, with an End SARS hashtag formed to further amplify the issues in national conversations.
This resulted in uncoordinated protests by teenagers demanding the dissolution of the SARS, which evolved into a national protest on October 8, 2020 (Business Day, 2020).
In Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Osun States, a large number of innocent individuals have been unlawfully slain and eliminated by intoxicated and trigger-freaked SARS police personnel (Segun, 2016).
SARS officers would storm any location, including checkpoints on inter-state roads, beer joints, cinemas, and club houses, among others, to make illegal arrests in the name of looking for “yahoo-yahoo boys” or internet fraudsters and criminals in the states (International Centre for Investigative Reporting, 2018).
The unnecessary and unauthorised use of weapons by Nigerian police is a pervasive problem, not a few isolated occurrences. Many illegal killings occur during police operations.
In other situations, police shoot and kill motorists who refuse to pay bribes at checkpoints. Some are killed in the street because, as police later claim, they are dangerous.
“Armed robbers”; others are killed after being apprehended, purportedly for attempting to flee. Many people disappear while in police custody and are almost certainly executed extrajudicially (Human Rights Watch, 2018).
Furthermore, the illegal search of phones and laptops, illegal profiling of youths as fraudsters, extrajudicial killings, and torture of arrested persons by SARS officers highlight the shortcomings in the police accountability system and practise that have characterised the Police Service over the years (Amnesty International, 2020).
Amnesty International (AI) identified 82 incidences of torture, ill-treatment, and extra-judicial killings by SARS agents in Anambra, Enugu, Imo, and Lagos States alone between January 2017 and May 2020 (Amnesty International, 2020).
Although the federal government disbanded the Nigerian Police’s SARS section, little progress has been made in the area of police reforms in its practise of human rights violations in the area of training. In light of this, this paper investigates the history of police brutality in Nigeria: a case study of SARS from 1992 to 2020.
1.3 objectives of The research
The study’s major goal is to investigate the history of police brutality in Nigeria. A case study of SARS from 1992 until 2020. The following are the study’s particular objectives:
To investigate the history of the Nigerian Police Force and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
To investigate the incidence of police brutality and human rights violations in Nigeria.
To investigate the elements that contribute to the violence and unlawful killings of citizens by SARS officers in Nigeria.
To investigate the implications for peace and national security of unlawful and cruel deaths of people by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
To conduct an examination of the END SARS Protest and its influence on human rights abuse in Nigeria.
To offer potential answers to the problem of police brutality in Nigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
What is the Nigerian Police Force’s and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad’s (SARS) history?
How often is police violence and human rights abuse in Nigeria?
What are the reasons that contribute to the brutality and wrongful deaths of citizens by SARS officers in Nigeria?
What are the ramifications for peace and national security of unlawful and cruel deaths of people by officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)?
What is the history of the END SARS Protest and its influence on human rights violations in Nigeria?
What are the potential remedies to Nigeria’s police brutality problem?
1.5 Significance/Justification of the Study
The issue of police brutality and human rights abuse is of global concern, particularly as it impacts its operations on African soil, particularly in Nigeria. The way police officers handle members of the public on the roadways and in detention is extremely concerning and discouraging, as it is anti-human rights preservation in nature.
Members of the public are treated like animals and dehumanised by severe treatment, particularly in an attempt to force confessions from suspected criminals. The situation is so heinous that a nationwide protest recently resulted in the disbandment of the SARS section inside the Nigerian Police Force.
The seminar is important because it will, among other things, provide the Nigeria Police Force with a blueprint for evaluating the operation of the Nigerian police and implementing policies that will bring about change in their operational framework in the area of the police-public relationship,
which is fraught with suspicion, as well as provide training to improve their investigation and interrogation in accordance with international conventions and procedures that ensure the safety of the public.
This research will be useful in the field of history, since it will inform future generations about what happened in the year 2020 during the #EndSARS demonstration.
This research will also help to raise awareness of police brutality not only in Nigeria, but around the world. This research will educate persons about their essential human rights, such as freedom of expression.
This research will also show the impact of the #EndSARS protest on the Nigerian economy. Furthermore, it would demonstrate the importance of the Nigerian government listening to the cries of her inhabitants.
1.6 Scope of the Research
This research looked into the history of police violence in Nigeria. Using SARS as a case study, the study addressed police violence and human rights breaches. This study included a 30-year period, from 1992 to 2022.
1.7 Research Methodology
The study used a qualitative research method and is based on case studies derived from Amnesty International interviews conducted across Nigeria on concerns of police brutality and human rights abuse. The case study reports were based on interviews with victims of police brutality in incarceration as well as those received from civil rights liberty groups in Nigeria,
who are responsible for the defence of human rights in Nigeria. The qualitative research method was utilised to gather quality information on incidents of police brutality and human rights violations in order to comprehend the scope and intensity of the situation.
Secondary data was gathered from the subject’s existing literature, which included books, journals, newspapers, magazines, conference papers, periodicals, and other related publications.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
The study defines the following terms:
Police brutality is defined as the unjustified or disproportionate, and often unlawful, use of force by police personnel against citizens.
Human rights abuse: The intentional mistreatment of groups of people, including violations of universally recognised fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
End SARS: A demonstration by Nigerian youths demanding for the abolition of the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit as a result of their violence and exploitative practises while carrying out their official duties.
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