Pubdate: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 Source: This Day (Nigeria) Copyright: 2003 This Day. Contact: http://www.thisdayonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2870 Author: Agha Ibiam TORTURE AS OBSOLETE TOOL IN CRIME PREVENTION Lagos As the world continues to fashion out better ways of treating offenders using the UN Standard Minimum Rule (UNSMR), the Nigerian Prison Service and Police Force say they are trying to adopt the new standard. Mr. Felix Obi, was arrested for drug trafficking at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on his way from Pakistan. He was tortured to the point of death. Others in his shoes never lived to tell the story, but he was lucky to survive it. "When I was arrested in Lagos, the security personnel took me to a dark dungeon at the airport. From the day of the arrest till the next day, I was given no food except physical assault. "After three days of interrogation, torment, blows and slaps, I was then taken to Alagbon in Lagos. There, my torture became worst. The Investigating Police Officer denied me visitors, slapped, kicked and threatened to insert broom-stick into my private parts. Tossing cans of tear gas into our cell was a common phenomenon", he told THISDAY recently. Obi spent one year at the Medium Security Prison, Kirikiri, Lagos. He was later moved to Maximum Security Prison, where he again spent two years. Within the space of three years, he served in about three prisons. At Abeokuta, he spent ten years with a lot of experience to share. "Torture starts when one is on awaiting trial, which begins at the prison gate. Having money on you attracts lots of flogging. You are also stripped necked, while a warder deeps his finger into ones anus as part of search for money. If anything is found, you will be forced to excrete it," he narrated. He further explained to THISDAY that he once stayed in a cell filled with water for five days as well as being placed on a quarter of a ration for five. Forced labour, he stressed was also part of the torture he experienced while in prison cell. At times they were forced to crawl on bare-knees on a gravel surface. Obi was discharged with a deformed finger as a result of series of beaten he received. Another victim, Mr. Felix Igbinosun, who is in his 50's also told THISDAY his own pathetic story of how he was made useless as a result of torture he got in prison. His case started in San Francisco, United States of America. He went to a hospital to complain about an ailment. In the process of diagnosing him of an initial ailment, he contracted another disease. This manifested when he relocated to New York. He was diagnosed by medical experts at the New York Shelter where he was working that he has Spitomoisis. He further told his story: "When the city government noticed that I had a paralysing disease, they wanted to suffocate me at night by trying to insert some discomfort object into my nose. I thought I will find solace by running to Nigeria Embassy in US, it rather turned out to be the worst decision that culminated to my worsening condition. "I ran to Nigeria embassy and told them my experience and the aging disease that I have. I also told them that I have a return ticket back to Nigeria, because I just visited home. I received no attention from them, and my health condition was deteriorating. As a result of the neglect, I attempted burning down the embassy because I felt I was no longer useful to my life," he explained. As a result, Igbinosun was arrested and taken to prison in New York. In the prison he was seriously tortured despite the condition of his health. Torture right from time past has been a channel of extracting information from prisoners. It happens in every prison around. But with the consistent advocacy over the years, such acts have been frowned at. Regrettably torture has been elevated to barbarism in developing countries. For example, Igbinosun claimed that at a point in prison his food and drinks were poisoned, which helped to paralyse him the more. After years of jail term in US, Igbinosun was deported to Nigeria. He committed another offense in one of his visits to US Embassy where he had gone to demand for his rights. In an attempt to stop him, he stabbed a security personnel. That act gave him another free ticket to Ikoyi prisons. He spent ten years without trial. His experience was not too different from what other inmates received on serving their jail term either there or in another prison in Nigeria. "We were beaten with brooms, and people were frequently getting blind. Foods were served without salt. Thank God I regained my freedom in April 2001 through the help of Gen. Ishaya Bamiyi who is currently being detained in the same prison", Igbinosun explained. Speaking to THISDAY recently in his office, Deputy Superintendent of Police and Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State, Mr. Emmanuel Ighodalo condemned the use of torture in its totality as a means of eliciting information from suspects or offenders. He said such attitude was against the spirit and idea of the police in Nigeria and all over the world. "We have the same ethics. It is a practice we should desist from because in the process, somebody might drop death, and that will be murder", he said. The PPRO explained that the present day crop of police officers, do not torture offenders. He said that the normal method of extracting information from offenders should be descent. But his position is a direct opposite of what obtains in Police Stations across the country. In daily basis, police inflicts body harm on suspects even before charging them to court. Ighodalo however maintained that such an act, if reported to the police authority attracts instance discipline against the officer involved. He stressed that torture is a clear violation of human rights, a practice he said the force is gradually phasing out especially in Lagos State. "It goes against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, against the African Charter as well as the United Nation Charter on human rights. They are civilised ways of doing things now. The police is preaching and even disassociating themselves from torture of any kind. The Inspector General (IG) preaches against that," he said. Ighodalo however disclosed that there will never be a total absence of brutality against victims by security personnel. He argued that even in the advanced countries, the police still engages in torturing victims. "All over the world, the issue of police brutality is still going on. But we are trying to see that the expected international standard for the treatment of prisoners or suspects is adhered to. This is democratic setting where the rule of law is practiced to the later," he added. The issue of human rights violation, either in prisons or police cells, has been a concern for some non-governmental organisations (NGO's). For the past two years, the Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) has been throwing its weight and resources to the training of warders on "Good Prison Practice and International Human Rights Standards". The training is to further strengthen the efforts and processes of entrenching the study of human rights by using the United Nations Standard Minimum Rule (UNSMR) for the treatment of offenders. The rule has since been inculcated as part of the prison training institution's curricula. Recently, using the UNSMR strategy, 14 prison officers were drawn from Lagos prisons and trained as trainers on good prison practice at Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos. The Controller of Prisons, Lagos State Commands, Mr. Kess Momoh, told THISDAY that inmates in this new era "are being treated in line with the training they have been receiving in this courses organised by PRAWA. He further argued that the condition of Nigerian prisons today, is not what it used to be. Pointing out that the attitude of officers to inmates has changed considerably, he said the new relationship could be likened to be that of a teacher and his students. "We don't brutalise inmates any longer. Nobody has the right to beat inmates. There is a cordial relationship between inmates and prison personnel. We have imbibed humane method of treatment to inmates", Momoh said. In a recent commemoration of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, held at the International School, University of Lagos, the Executive Director of PRAWA, Dr. Uju Agomoh emphasised that the psychological consequences of torture can last forever. These, she said ranges from sleeping problems, nightmares, fear, depression and feeling of guilt may hunt a person for the rest of his life. According to the Declaration on the protection of all persons from being subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the United Nations General Assembly frowned at torture as "any act by which severe pains or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purpose as obtaining from him or third person information or confession." It further declared that act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as an offense to human dignity and shall be condemned as a denial of the purpose of the Charter of the UN and as a violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The paper stipulated that even in circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, internal political or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. But where such rights are infringed upon, or alleged to have subjected to torture, shall have the right to complain and have his case impartially examined by the competent authorities of the state concerned. That was also Ighodalo's position on the matter against offenders. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake