Nigeria's military Joint Task Force (JTF) must be investigated as a
matter of urgency, Amnesty International said today.
The group said it has received credible information from a senior
officer in the Nigerian army that over 950 people died in military
custody in the first six months of this year alone.
The report came on the same day that the 2013 Ibrahim Index of African
Governance (IIAG), reported the quality of governance in Nigeria to be
deteriorating, Nigeria ranking 41st out of Africa's 52 nations in
safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable
economic opportunity and human development.
Amnesty said that most of the reported deaths occurred in facilities
used by the military to detain people suspected of being members of,
or associated with, the armed Islamist group Boko Haram.
Lucy Freeman, Amnesty's Deputy Director for Africa, said:
"The evidence we've gathered suggests that hundreds of people died in
military custody in 2013 alone. This is a staggeringly high figure
that requires urgent action by the Nigerian government.
"The details of what happens behind locked doors in these shadowy
detention facilities must be exposed, and those responsible for any
human rights violations brought to book."
A large proportion of these deaths are reported to have happened in
Giwa military barracks, in Maiduguri, Borno State; in Sector Alpha,
commonly referred to as 'Guantanamo'; and in Presidential Lodge (known
as 'Guardroom') in Damaturu, Yobe State.
According to former detainees interviewed by Amnesty, people died on
an almost daily basis in both Giwa and Sector Alpha from starvation,
suffocation or other injuries associated with overcrowding. Some
suffered serious injuries from severe beating and eventually died due
to lack of medical attention and treatment.
The interviews also revealed that in some cases detainees may have
been extra judicially executed. Some described soldiers taking
prisoners from their cells threatening to shoot and kill them. In many
cases the detainees never returned. Others were reportedly shot in the
leg during interrogation, were not provided with medical care and were
left to bleed to death.
Another senior officer in the Nigerian army who spoke on condition of
anonymity told Amnesty:
"Hundreds have been killed in detention either by shooting them or by
suffocation…There are times when people are brought out on a daily
basis and killed. About five people, on average, are killed nearly on
a daily basis."
In April 2013 Amnesty International delegates counted 20 emaciated
corpses lying on the ground in the compound of the State Specialist
Hospital mortuary in Maiduguri. Eye witnesses said that the bodies had
been deposited by the JTF.
Several other sources told Amnesty that the same mortuary received a
daily delivery of bodies by the JTF. They reportedly remain there
until the mortuary is full and are then taken away for burial by Borno
State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA). Information received
by Amnesty indicates that post-mortem examinations are not carried out
at the mortuary or elsewhere.
Lucy Freeman added:
"International standards, as well as Nigerian laws, require that
deaths in custody must be investigated thoroughly and impartially.
"Detainees have human rights and these must be respected in all instances."
In many parts of northern Nigeria hundreds of people accused of having
links to Boko Haram have been arbitrarily detained by the JTF. Many
have been detained. incommunicado for lengthy periods without charge
or trial, without being brought before any judicial authority, and
without access to lawyers and families
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