The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has slammed the New York- based Human Rights Watch (HRW) over its report, released Tuesday, revealing pervasive police corruption in Nigeria.
In a statement issued in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, by its spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, the police said the 102-page report, entitled: ”Everyone’s in on the Game’: Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force,’ was full of ’embellished innuendos and suggestive graphics aimed at reaching a preconceived solution’.
It said the force was doing everything to improve on its human rights records, adding: ‘There is no immunity to impunity.’
The statement added: ‘It is certainly not the whole truth to aver that Nigeria police personnel are more of predators than protectors. What is certain from persistent demands for police services in homes and business places is that a go od majority of Nigerians have confidence in the ability of the ability of the Nigeria Police Force to offer reliable services to them.’
In the scathing report, HRW asked the Nigerian authorities to investigate and remove senior officers ‘who tolerate and encourage extortion, and who deprive hard-working members of the force of the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.
It said police officers in Nigeria routinely extort money from drivers and passengers at roadside checkpoints, in some cases resulting in confrontations that escalate to violence and other serious abuses.
It also found that some senior Nigerian police officers enforce a perverse system of ‘returns,’ in which rank-and-file officers are compelled to pay up the chain of command a share of the money they extort from the public, thereby institutionali zing and driving extortion-related abuses.
HRW said senior police officials were also allegedly embezzling staggering sums of public funds meant to cover basic police operations, noting that though the 2009 budget for the Nigeria Police Force totaled US$1.4 billion, ‘the daily reality is that embezzlement and mismanagement has left the police with limited investigatory capacity and government forensic laboratories at a near standstill.’
The rights group said the report also showed how government ministers and officials charged with police oversight, discipline, and reform had failed to root out systemic corruption, adding: ‘Public complaint mechanisms, internal police controls, and civilian oversight remain weak, underfunded, and largely ineffective. Victims of police abuse and extortion also cited fear of further victimization as a key reason for not reporting these abus es.’