LAGOS, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Amnesty International said torture of civilians and suspects by Nigerian security forces have persisted despite new legislation to curb such abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement marking International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Amnesty said it continued to receive regular reports of torture and other human rights abuses in military and police custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMoreover, victims are still being denied justice, with the Nigerian judicial system failing to prevent or punish torture, perpetuating a culture of impunity,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, said the use of torture was \u201cstill widespread\u201d despite the enactment by the Nigerian parliament of the Anti-Torture Act in December 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A presidential panel was also set up by President Muhammadu Buhari following mass outrage and protests calling for reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) \u2014 widely accused in Nigeria of human rights abuses while enjoying impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several rights bodies and Amnesty had accused police and SARS of torture and extra-judicial executions of suspects, prompting the police to rebrand the unit in August last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet accusations against the new unit and other security forces have continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur research also shows that despite an existing law against the use of torture, no police officer has been charged under the act\u201d, Ojigho said, adding that \u201cOrder 237\u201d, a security directive allowing police to shoot at fleeing subjects, had not been changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It allowed for a \u201clethal use of force that sometimes leads to extrajudicial killings\u201d, she added. — NNN-AGENCIES
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LAGOS, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Amnesty International said torture of civilians and suspects by Nigerian security forces have persisted despite new legislation to curb such abuses. In a statement marking International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Amnesty said it continued to receive regular reports of torture and other human rights abuses in military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30078"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}