Nigeria’s human rights situation deteriorated. Hundreds of people were killed in politically
motivated, communal and sectarian violence across the country, particularly after
the April elections. Violent attacks attributed to the religious sect Boko Haram increased,
killing more than 500 people. The police were responsible for hundreds of unlawful
killings, most of which remained uninvestigated. The justice system remained ineffective.
Around two thirds of all prison inmates were still awaiting trial. There were 982
people on death row. No executions were reported. Forced evictions continued throughout
the country, and violence against women remained rife.
In April, President Goodluck Jonathan was declared the winner of the country’s presidential
elections. Violent attacks and rioting followed, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
The President signed into law several bills, including the National Human Rights Commission
Act in February; the Freedom of Information Act in May; and the Legal Aid Act and
the Terrorism Act in June.
The National Human Rights Commission was given power to investigate human rights violations
and visit police stations and other places of detention. By the end of the year, however,
funds for the Commission had not been released.
Corruption remained endemic. In November, the President dismissed the Chairperson
of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, six months before her tenure was
due to end. No explanation was given. He also approved a 12,500 naira (US$76) increase
in the monthly minimum wage to 18,000 naira (US$117). 1.3 million people remained
internally displaced throughout the country.
Police operations remained characterized by human rights violations. Hundreds of people
were unlawfully killed, often before or during arrests on the street. Others were
tortured to death in police detention. Many such unlawful killings may have constituted
extrajudicial executions. Many people disappeared from police custody. Few police
officers were held accountable, leaving relatives of those killed or disappeared without
justice. Police increasingly wore plain clothes or uniforms without identification,
making it much harder for people to complain about individual officers.
On 19 April, Chibuike Orduku was arrested by police at his home in Ubinini, Rivers
State, and detained along with three unidentified men. Chibuike Orduku was last seen
by his sister on 5 May. He reported being tortured and denied food and water. The
whereabouts of all four men remained unknown.
On 2 November, police from the Port Harcourt Swift Operation Squad (SOS) killed three
men in Abonnema Wharf and arrested four others. Two were later released while the
other two were remanded in prison. Eyewitnesses said the community was peaceful before
the police arrived. The police refused to release the three men’s corpses to their
relatives for burial. No investigation had been carried out by the end of the year.
Special task forces, including the Special Anti Robbery Squads and SOS, committed
a wide range of human rights violations. In early 2011, the Bayelsa State government
set up Operation Famou Tangbe – “kill and throw away” in the local language – to fight
crime. Many officers linked to the operation reportedly unlawfully killed, tortured,
arbitrarily arrested and detained people. Suspects in detention reportedly had no
access to their lawyers or relatives.
On 22 February, Dietemepreye Ezonasa, a student aged 22, was arrested by Operation
Famou Tangbe and taken to a police station. On 27 February, the police denied that
he was in their custody. His whereabouts have since remained unknown.
On 11 May, Tochukwu Ozokwu, 25, was arrested by Operation Famou Tangbe. The next day
the police told him to jump in a river or be shot. He could not swim and drowned.
No investigation was carried out.
In September, the Federal Government stopped Operation Famou Tangbe. The human rights
violations committed while it was active remained uninvestigated.
The police frequently disobeyed court orders.
The police refused to release Mallam Aliyu Tasheku, a suspected Boko Haram member,
after a court granted him bail on 28 March. He was finally released in July.
The police failed to produce Chika Ibeku, who disappeared from police custody in April
2009, more than a year after a court ordered that he be brought to court.
The majority of cases remained uninvestigated and unpunished. Some relatives were
threatened when they sought justice.
Catherine Akor continued to receive death threats after suing the police for the unlawful
killing of her son, Michael Akor, and his friend, Michael Igwe, in June 2009.
There were consistent reports of police routinely torturing suspects to extract information.
Confessions extracted under torture were used as evidence in court, in violation of
national and international laws.
Violent attacks by suspected members of the religious sect Boko Haram increased, killing
more than 500 people and often targeting police officers and government officials.
Since June, bars and beer gardens in northern Nigeria were targeted, killing scores
of people. The situation deteriorated towards the end of the year, with weekly reports
of bombings and attacks. On 31 December, the President declared a state of emergency
in parts of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe states.
On 16 June, a bomb exploded in the Nigeria Police Force headquarters car park, killing
at least three people.
On 28 August, Boko Haram bombed the UN building in Abuja, killing 24 people and injuring
at least 80.
On 4 November, at least 100 people were killed in bombings in Damaturu, the Yobe State
capital.
On 25 December, at least 44 people were killed in four bombings; 37 people were also
killed and more than 50 injured when Boko Haram bombed a church in Madalla, Niger
State. In Jos, Plateau State, and Damaturu, a further seven people died after bombs
exploded.
In response to the violence, the Federal Government set up a Special Military Task
Force (JTF) in Maiduguri in June, consisting of the army, navy, air force, the Department
of State Security and the Nigeria Police Force. Reports subsequently increased regarding
the security forces in Borno State resorting to unlawful killings, dragnet arrests,
arbitrary and unlawful detentions, extortion and intimidation. Hundreds of people
were arrested. On 25 December, Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission expressed
concerns about possible extrajudicial executions by security forces in northern Nigeria.
On 9 July, the JTF cordoned off the Kaleri Ngomari Custain area in Maiduguri after
a Boko Haram bombing. Going from house to house, they reportedly shot dead at least
25 people. Many men and boys were reported missing. The JTF also burned down several
houses, forcing occupants to flee. At least 45 people were reportedly injured. Women
were allegedly also raped by the security forces.
On 20 March, Sa’adatu Umar was arrested in Bauchi and detained with her three children,
all aged below six. She was not charged with any crime and was unlawfully detained
for several months, reportedly because her husband was a suspected Boko Haram member.
On 17 October, a court ordered the police to release her and her children and to pay
1 million naira (approximately US$6,200) in damages.
The government did not publicize the findings of a report on the July 2009 clashes
between Boko Haram and security forces, in which more than 800 people died, including
24 police officers and Boko Haram’s leader, Muhammad Yusuf. In July, five police officers
suspected of extrajudicially executing Muhammad Yusuf were charged with his murder
and detained.
A report by the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-East Zone
was submitted to the President in September but was not made public. Senator Ali Ndume,
representative of Borno-South and a Committee member, was arrested in November and
charged under the Terrorism Act with concealing information and providing information
to a terrorist group. He was released on bail in December.
On 17 September, Mallam Babakura Fugu, Muhammad Yusuf’s brother-in-law, was killed.
No investigation was carried out and no one was brought to justice.
A police appeal against the April 2010 Borno State High Court decision that they should
pay compensation to the relatives of Mallam Babakura Fugu’s father, Alhaji Baba Fugu
– who was extrajudicially executed in police custody in 2009 – had not been heard
by the end of the year.
Communal and sectarian violence continued in Nigeria’s middle belt throughout the
year. The authorities’ failure to prevent violence and protect people’s right to life
caused violence to escalate. More than 200 people died in clashes in Plateau State
alone, in relation to long-standing tensions and land conflicts between different
ethnic groups. On 18 January, the Plateau State Commander of the Special Military
Task Force reportedly ordered soldiers to shoot on sight.
Hundreds of people were killed in politically motivated violence across Nigeria before,
during and after the national parliamentary, presidential and state elections in
April. Politically motivated threats and intimidation also took place. The report
of the Presidential Committee on Post-Election Violence, presented to the President
in October, was not made public. The Committee Chairman highlighted Nigeria’s climate
of impunity as one of the main causes.
Hundreds of people were killed in rioting and violent attacks in northern and central
Nigeria following the presidential elections. According to the Inspector General of
Police, 520 people were killed in Kaduna and Niger states alone.
Scores of people were rounded up by the police and security forces in relation to
northern Nigeria’s ongoing violence, but few were successfully prosecuted or convicted.
Previous commissions of inquiry into the Plateau State violence reportedly named suspected
perpetrators, but no criminal investigations were started during the year.
Nigeria’s criminal justice system remained under-resourced, blighted by corruption
and generally distrusted. When investigations occurred, they were often cursory and
not intelligence-led. The security forces often resorted to dragnet arrests instead
of individual arrests based on reasonable suspicion. Suspects were regularly subjected
to inhuman and degrading treatment in detention.
Court processes were slow, resulting in most detainees being kept in lengthy pre-trial
detention in appalling conditions. Seventy per cent of Nigeria’s 48,000 prison inmates
had not been tried. Many had awaited trial for years. Few could afford a lawyer.
In August, the Federal Government set up a Committee on the Implementation of Justice
Sector Reforms to draft legislation, guidelines and recommendations and implement
these within 24 months.
Seventy-two people were sentenced to death. There were 982 people on death row, including
16 women. Fifty-five people had their sentences commuted and 11 were pardoned. No
executions were reported. Many death row inmates were sentenced following blatantly
unfair trials or after more than a decade in prison awaiting trial.
In June, the scope of the death penalty was expanded to include supporting terrorism
resulting in death. Provisions under the Terrorism Act were imprecise, too broad
and inconsistent with human rights standards for due process, lawful deprivation
of liberty and fair trial.
In October, Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister
of Justice, stated that Nigeria had introduced an official moratorium on executions.
However, no official gazette was issued to confirm this.
Evictions continued throughout Nigeria without genuine consultation with people affected,
adequate notice, compensation or alternative accommodation. More than 200,000 people
continued to live at risk of forced eviction from their waterfront communities in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
On 25 June, hundreds of people were forcibly evicted and at least one person killed
when the Task Force on Environmental Sanitation, accompanied by armed police and soldiers,
burned down structures in Panteka settlement and market in the Federal Capital Territory.
Police reportedly fired shots in the air, set fire to buildings and arrested people
trying to run away. Residents claimed that no prior notice had been given before the
operation.
No investigation was carried out into the 2009 shooting of at least 12 people in Bundu
waterfront, Port Harcourt, when security forces opened fire on people peacefully protesting
against the proposed demolition of their homes.
Domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls
by state officials and individuals remained rife. The authorities consistently failed
to prevent and address sexual violence, or to hold perpetrators to account.
Twelve of Nigeria’s 36 states had not passed the Child Rights Act. The police frequently
arrested and detained children unlawfully, including those living on the street and
other vulnerable children. Children continued to be detained with adults in police
and prison cells. The country’s one functioning remand home remained overcrowded.
No investigation was carried out into the violent clash on 29 December 2009 in Bauchi,
in which 22 children were killed. Many were reportedly shot by the police.
A pattern emerged of intimidation and attacks against human rights defenders and journalists,
with several being threatened, beaten or arrested by police and security forces. Politicians
increasingly used their influence to secure the arrest of people criticizing the authorities.
In January, Patrick Naagbanton, the Co-ordinator of CEHRD, a Nigerian human rights
NGO, received multiple death threats.
On 9 November, Justine Ijeoma, the Director of the NGO Human Rights, Social Development
and Environmental Foundation (Hursdef), was arrested after intervening to stop a police
officer beating a woman. He was released after being detained for several hours. He
and his staff were threatened by the police throughout the year.
In October, Osmond Ugwu, a human rights defender from Enugu State, and Raphael Elobuike
were arrested at a peaceful trade union meeting in Enugu after campaigning for the
minimum wage to be implemented. They were subsequently charged with conspiracy to
murder and attempted murder. In December, the Attorney General appeared in court to
personally oppose the bail application. The judge adjourned his ruling on bail until
January 2012.
Despite the 2009 presidential amnesty granted to members of armed groups, armed gangs
continued to kidnap oil workers and attack oil installations. The security forces,
including the military, continued to commit human rights violations.
No investigation was carried out into the JTF raid of the Ayokoromo community in 2010,
in which up to 51 people were killed, including children, and at least 120 homes were
burned down.
Oil industry pollution and environmental damage continued to have a serious impact
on people’s lives and livelihoods. However, affected communities still lacked access
to vital information about the oil industry’s local impact.
Environmental laws and regulations were poorly enforced, partly due to government
agencies being compromised by conflicts of interest.
The Bodo community launched a UK High Court law suit against Shell Petroleum Development
Company, requesting compensation and a clean-up after two major oil spills in 2008.
In August, the UN Environment Programme revealed the devastating human and environmental
effects of decades of oil spills in Ogoniland. It found the contamination to be widespread
and severe, and stated that people in the Niger Delta have been exposed to it for
decades.
On 20 December, according to Shell “fewer than 40,000 barrels” of oil leaked into
the Atlantic ocean at the company’s off-shore Bonga oil field.
Human rights abuses continued against people suspected of having same-sex relationships
or non-conventional gender identity. In December, the Senate approved a bill which
would impose a 14-year prison sentence for same-sex marriages. Any person or groups
that “witness, abet and aids the solemnization of a same sex marriage or union” or
“supports” gay groups, “processions or meetings”, would face a 10-year prison sentence.
The same sentence would apply to a “public show of same sex amorous relationship”
and anyone who registers gay clubs and organizations protecting the rights of lesbians,
gay men, bisexual and transgender people.
