(Reuters) – Nigerian security forces carried out political murders and other extra-judicial killings in 2005 and used excessive force in their actions against criminals or protesters, the U.S. Department of State said in a report.
Six years after military dictatorship ended and a civilian government took office, troops and police in Africa’s most populous country committed other serious human rights abuses including torture and unlawful detention, the report says.
It will make unwelcome reading for President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been in power since 1999 and has sought to improve Nigeria’s democratic credentials. The army has ruled Nigeria for most of its history since independence in 1960.
“National police, army, and other security forces committed extra-judicial killings or used excessive force to apprehend criminals and to disperse protesters,” the report says.
Among many other examples, it says security forces were instructed to use lethal force against suspected criminals and vandals near oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, which produces Nigeria’s 2.4 million barrels per day of crude oil.
It says soldiers killed at least 15 civilians and burned many houses during a February 2005 raid on the remote village of Odioma in the delta, ostensibly aimed at hunting down militiamen suspected of killings.
“There were reports of summary executions, assaults, and other abuses carried out by military personnel and paramilitary mobile police across the Niger Delta,” the report says.
Army repression is one of the factors in a deep crisis in the delta, where militants are holding three Western hostages and have attacked the oil industry, cutting output by a fifth.
“There was politically motivated killings by the government or its agents,” the report says, citing assassinations in the southwestern state of Oyo and central Kogi state.
VIOLENT ROADBLOCKS
The police come in for heavy criticism and accusations that many use their position to extort money from motorists. The report says police ignored an order from the inspector general to stop setting up illegal roadblocks.
“Roadblocks continued nationwide. Security forces frequently killed persons while trying to extort money from them,” it says, listing specific cases.
Last year, Human Rights Watch urged Western donors funding police reform in Nigeria to link continued aid to measurable steps to curb the torture and killing of criminal suspects.
The U.S. report said other abuses by officials included harsh punishment by Islamic Sharia courts, executive interference in the judiciary and restriction of freedom of speech.
The report also said endemic corruption, weak infrastructure and general economic mismanagement hindered the growth of the world’s eighth largest oil exporter in 2005.
“Corruption was massive, widespread, and pervasive, at all levels of the government and society,” the report said.
Obasanjo launched a much-publicized campaign against corruption after his re-election in 2003. The crackdown has led to the conviction a former police chief and to the sackings of several ministers and senior politicians.
But the president’s critics accuse him of selective justice, arguing the anti-graft campaign is used as a weapon against his opponents. The presidency denies the charge.