Lawyer Flays Human Rights Abuses In Nigeria

A Port Harcourt based
lawyer and human rights advocate, Barr. Abraham Jande has criticized the high incidence of human rights abuses in Nigerian democracy.
Barr. Jande, who made the condemnation while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday, explained that human rights abuses by law enforcement agents were on the increase in spite of the country’s democratic rule.
The Port Harcourt lawyer remarked that the police were guilty of abusing suspects and noted that they sometimes used torture to extract confession from suspects in police detention.
He pointed out that the police had grown above the law and did things their own way instead of what the law prescribed.
Barr. Jande noted that the police sometimes detained suspects for months in their custody in spite of the maximum of 48 hours (two days) which the constitution prescribes.
The Port Harcourt lawyer called on commissioners of police at various state commands to look more closely at what the officers and men of the police force were doing.
According to him, “the attitude of policemen is setting the country back. At police stations it is boldly written that “bail is free” but it will surprise you that they charge as much as one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) at some specialised police formations.”
“We must put all hands on deck to ensure that we move the nation forward,” he stated.

Chidi Enyie