In 2017, Nigerian human rights
activists started the #EndSARS campaign, following reported cases of human
rights violations by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives.
Between January and 2017 and
February 2019, Amnesty International carried out research in Rivers, Anambra,
Enugu, Imo and Lagos states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The report of their findings was published in June this year.
The report noted that
“Researchers interviewed a total of 82 people, including victims, journalists,
human rights defenders, witnesses of abuses, relatives of victims and lawyers.
“Most of the interviews were done
in person, but some were conducted by telephone. Some names of victims and
witnesses have been withheld or changed, in order to protect their identities.”
Below are cases of SARS brutality
as recorded in Amnesty International’s report.
23-year-old Miracle
First is 23-year-old Miracle, who
was arrested in February 2017 and detained at SARS detention centres in Awkuzu
and Neni in Anambra State, on the allegation of laptop theft.
He told Amnesty International
that he was tortured and hardly given any food during his 40 days in detention
by SARS, before he was charged and brought before a court.
He told Amnesty International:
“At SARS Awkuzu, their leader directed them to hang me. They took me to the
back of the hall and tied me up with ropes.
“They tied my hands behind me,
tied my two legs together and then tied the rope binding my hands with that
around my legs behind me, causing my chest to protrude. They had two already
prepared iron stands where they hang people.
“They passed an iron rod through
the ropes and then lifted me up by the rod and hung me from the iron stand.
“Then they started to use all
manner of items to beat me, including machetes, sticks, inflicting me with all
manner of injuries. When the first officer came to check and saw that I was almost
unconscious, he went to call their team leader, who then asked them to bring me
down.
“They dumped me inside the
interrogation hall.”
Miracle told Amnesty
International that the next day, he was taken from Awkuzu to a SARS detention
centre in Neni, where he was detained for 40 days.
He said he was denied food and
water by SARS during the course of his detention, and only managed to stay
alive with the help of inmates who smuggled sachets of water into his cell at
midnight.
He alleged that eight of his
co-detainees died of starvation during the period of his detention. Miracle was
taken to court on March 25, 2017 and charged for armed robbery, but was
discharged for lack of evidence.
A lawyer, who took up the case of
Miracle told Amnesty International that he wrote the Inspector General of
Police (IGP) in May 2017 asking for an investigation, but failed to get any
response from the IGP.
Sunday Bang, a 24-year-old
amateur boxer, described how he was arrested at home in Abuja in October 2018,
by three SARS officers and accused of robbery.
He was arrested because he had
visited his girlfriend a few hours before her house was raided by armed
robbers.
Sunday Bang told Amnesty
International that during his five weeks’ detention by SARS, he was not allowed
access to his relatives or a lawyer.
He described his experience at
SARS office in Abuja to Amnesty International:
“They took me to the torture
chambers the second day after my arrest. One policeman, in charge of torture,
came with a bicycle/car tyre tube and a hard piece of wood.
“He tied my left arm with the
tube. It was very painful and my arm went numb. He tied me from my palm to the
end of my upper arm. They beat me with a stick and rod on my arms, knees and
legs.
“They broke my two legs. I
couldn’t stand. I was bleeding from my legs and body. My blood was flowing all
over the floor. I kept telling them that I was innocent of the accusation.
“The police officer was
threatening he would shoot me, if I didn’t admit that I participated in the
robbery. I was very weak because I had not eaten any food since my arrest.”
Bang told Amnesty International
that his arms were specifically targeted during his torture, to ensure that he
would no longer be able to use them to box.
Three weeks after his arrest, the
police arrested the robbers who robbed Sunday Bang’s girlfriend’s house, but
said they would not release him until his injuries were healed, to prevent him
from being able to lodge any complaint against the police.
He was kept in detention for a
further two weeks without access to medication. He was eventually released
after his relatives paid N20,000($55).
34-year-old Kofi Bartels
Kofi Bartels (34) is a broadcast
journalist with a radio station in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He was arrested
on June 4 in Port Harcourt, when he attempted to record on his mobile phone,
the beating of a young man by three SARS officers.
The SARS officers took Kofi to
the station, where he was detained. He described his experience at SARS office
to Amnesty International:
“I was taken to a room; it looked
like a detention room. It was not like a cell, but a room. My phones were confiscated.
Two of the four policemen engaged in slapping me, one after the other and
beating me.
“Another two joined in beating me
up when they heard I had been filming what they had been doing. For about 45
minutes, I was slapped. I suffered hearing loss at a point.
“At a point they took my shoes
from me. It was quite unfortunate. I was beaten black and blue. I was not
allowed to sit on a chair. I was on the floor on one leg.
“After a while, I was told I was
going to be thrown into jail, that the beating was just the beginning. They
told me they would hand me over to a male inmate who was going to have anal sex
with me.”
Kofi was released after news of
his arrest went viral on social media. The police apologised and promised to
punish the officers responsible for his torture.
Kofi told Amnesty International
that he was invited during an in-house trial of the policemen and asked to
identify the officers who had tortured him.
He is not sure if anyone was ever
punished for his ordeal.
The report noted that in most of
the cases documented by Amnesty International, the victims were unable to
report their experiences to the police authorities, because they were afraid
the perpetrators might come back to victimise them.
In some cases, victims of torture
were expressly warned not to disclose their experiences to anyone, or they
would be killed.
A 27-year-old trader, who was
tortured at SARS Awkuzu office, told Amnesty International: “They told me that
I should ensure that nobody hears about what happened.
“That if he gets information that
I discussed my ordeal with anybody, they would come back and execute me.”
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