By Edith Nwapi —
#TrackNigeria: The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
Ojukwu, also the Chairman, Presidential Investigation Panel on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, made the call during a visit by the panel to SARS detention facility in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the panel was set up by the Federal Government to look into the petitions by members of the public on the operations of SARS and to recommend a way forward.
He said that the visit was for the panel members to see things by themselves.
“We have always preached prison decongestion, we need to do some background checks; there must be intelligent policing in other to move forward.
” There must be some diligent investigation to separate the guilty and the innocent, failure to do that would encourage injustice” he said.
He said that there was an improvement in the provision of toilets and bathrooms facilities compared to the last time the panel visited.
Ojukwu decried the practice of keeping police with other inmates because it affects the way they treat other people they come across in the line of duty.
The chairman stressed the need for officers to minimize or do away with the way they torture inmates or suspects.
“We don’t benefit much from torture, it only breeds frustration, and the truth cannot be extracted from the person tortured.
“Everyone in detention here had gone through one form of torture or the other, this is not right; some of the inmates have marks to attest to that fact,” he said.
He said that most of the inmates were not healthy due to inadequate feeding, yet some inmates’ family members bring food according to some of the inmates.
Ojukwu added that the sleeping arrangement was inhuman and had inflicted some injuries on the inmates.
He said that the cells are overcrowded, ranging from 65 to 95 inmates in a cell; some had been there for as long as one year two months without being arraigned in court.
The chairman called on the police to charge them to court to prove their innocence or guilt.
“Some of the cases that brought many of the suspects here are mostly phone theft, bag snatching, which should not be handled by SARS,” he said.
The executive secretary condemned the detention of many minors between the ages of 17 and 15.
Responding, Mr James Idachaba, police in charge of legal, said that when they take charges to the court it takes as long as six months before being assigned most times.
And for minors, the police said most of them are linked with other criminal offences like murder or kidnapping or armed robbery.
Also addressing the inmates, Ojukwu told them that the government has not forsaken them hence the visit.
“You make the society unsafe with your criminal activities like snatching bags, phones or their personal belongings.
“We are here to review what brought you here and see if you can change to better human beings in the society, if you are released,” he advised. (NAN)
