HOPE BETRAYED? A Report on Impunity and State-Sponsored Violence in Nigeria KADUNA PLATEAU OSUN BENUE ANA- MBRA CROSS RIVER BAYELSA First published in 2002 by: World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) P. O. Box 21-8, rue du Vieux Billard ch-1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland Tel: + 41 22 8094939 Fax: + 41 22 8094929 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.omct.org And Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN) 1 Afolabi Aina Street, Off Allen Avenue Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria Tel: 234-1-4933195 Fax: 234-1-4935338 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.kabissa.org/cleen COORDINATION Eric Sottas, Director, World Organisation Against Torture Innocent Chukwuma, Executive Director, Centre for Law Enforcement Education Anne-Laurence Lacroix, Deputy Director, World Organisation Against Torture Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Expert-Consultant ISBN: 2-88477-023-2 Imp. Abrax F-21300 Chenôve © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior approval of the copyright owners. HOPE BETRAYED? A Report on Impunity and State-Sponsored Violence in Nigeria KADUNA PLATEAU OSUN BENUE ANA- MBRA CROSS RIVER BAYELSA Acknowledgments The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN) are grateful to several groups and individuals for their assistance and contributions in the publication of this book. We thank the European Union for their support in the research and publication of this book. We equally express our thanks to the participants at the October 2001 workshop in Ota, Ogun State on the use of international human rights mechanisms, whose craving for investigation of ethno-religious crises, state- sponsored violence and impunity led to the publication of this work. Our thanks go to the field researchers/writers and their tour guides or assistants (and their organisations) for embarking on this project, perhaps to the detriment of their immediate assignments in their offices. We thank the project consultant, Chidi Odinkalu, who brought his immense wealth of experience on human rights research to bear on the field research phase of the study and painstakingly edited several drafts of the report before we arrived at this final product. Finally, we acknowledge the efforts put into this project by the staff of OMCT and CLEEN at every stage of the work. 4 World Organisation Against Torture & Centre for Law Enforcement Education TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments................................................................... 4 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................. 7 2. Legal framework for holding government accountable ........................ 15 3. The Ife-Modakeke Crisis .............................................. 35 4. The Aguleri and Umuleri Violence ............................ 51 5. The Odi Killings .......................................................... 69 6. Ethnic and Religious Crisis in Kaduna ....................... 83 7. The Jos Crisis ................................................................ 105 8. The Benue Killings ..................................................... 129 9. The Violence in Odukpani LGA of Cross River State .................................................... 169 10. Conclusions and recommendations ............................ 185 Appendix I Profile of writers ............................................................. 193 Appendix II Map of Nigeria .................................................................. 197 5 Hope Betrayed? 6 World Organisation Against Torture & Centre for Law Enforcement Education INTRODUCTION BY INNOCENT CHUKWUMA 7 Hope Betrayed? 8 World Organisation Against Torture & Centre for Law Enforcement Education The last three years of elected civilian government in Nigeria have witnessed an alarming spate of violence and egregious human rights violations. In over fifty separate and documented incidents, over ten thousand Nigerians have reportedly been victims of extra- judicial executions at an average of over 200 executions per incident. Security agents, acting in most cases on direct orders of the government, have been responsible for many of the deaths as well as accompanying rapes, maiming and torture of thousands of women, the aged, children and other defenseless civilians. The International Committee of Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced and scattered in several makeshift refugee camps without adequate food and medical supplies, and in most unhygienic and deplorable conditions.1 This situation, in which many Nigerians now find themselves, presents a reversal of hope from the high expectations and promises that heralded the inauguration of the elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999. In his inaugural speech President Obasanjo promised that his government would not be “business as usual” and pledged to step on the toes of those responsible for human rights violations. He followed his pledge up by freeing known political detainees, putting to trial scores of people for their roles in high profile cases of human rights abuses under the military and establishing the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission to look into rights violations committed by all previous military regimes in Nigeria. These actions were applauded in and outside Nigeria and more were expected to return the country to international respectability and adherence to rule of law and due process. However, events in Nigeria since these few measured steps were taken in the first three months of the government, have shown that the government has not only failed to abide by its freely undertaken 1 http:// www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/I…/B0FFF6BAB2FB52B7C1256B06003AF018?Opendocument 9 Hope Betrayed? obligations under international human rights law but has also continued some of the practices that characterized the dark days of military rule when human rights violations reigned supreme. For instance, many of the security agents implicated in serious human rights violations under the military are not only walking free but have also retained their jobs. In some cases, military officials shown to have been involved in serious violations of human rights have been promoted in the face of credible evidence of their conduct and complaints for redress and accountability. Similarly, the prisons have remained in deplorable conditions, over-congested and over seventy percent of their populations are persons awaiting trial, some of whom have not appeared before any court for years. To its credit, the Obasanjo government ratified the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treat- ment or Punishment. However, law enforcement officials continue to use “stop and search” powers as instruments for extortion and torture as the main tool for extracting confessions from criminal suspects. In some cases, police officials have resorted to extra- judicial killing of criminal suspects in desperate response to societal pressure to contain the rise in violent crime. On March 11, 2002, Mr. Tafa Balogun, the new Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force, enjoined members of the force to fire back at criminal suspects if they come under attack.2 This order, which is part of a new “Operation fire-for-fire” policy, is expected to exponentially increase the incidence of extra-judicial killings and resort to third- degree policing, given the reputation of the police in Nigeria. Discriminatory laws and practices continue to undermine the realization of the full potentials of the human person in Nigeria. The worst affected are women and children in the country. Expectations that the government would faithfully respect its obligations under the international human rights treaties ratified by Nigeria have not materialized. The government has failed to either domesticate any of the international human rights treaties 2 This Day Newspapers, Lagos, March 12, 2002, p.1. 10 World Organisation Against Torture & Centre for Law Enforcement Education ratified by Nigeria or accept the right of individual petition to any of the international treaty monitoring bodies. Nigeria is in severe arrears of its reporting obligations under all the major international human rights treaty regimes applicable to it and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights domesticated by Nigeria is habitually irrelevant to government policy. The economic rights of a majority of Nigerian citizens are greatly undermined by the poor state of the economy and the policies of the government. Despite the country’s undisputed wealth, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) annual Human Development Report consistently ranks human life in Nigeria among the poorest in the world. However, the single most important issue, threatening to tear apart the peace and corporate existence of Nigeria today and its nascent experiment in elected government, is the spate of extra- judicial killings, rape, torture, maiming and destruction of property and livelihood that have followed the over 50 outbreaks of targeted violence that have taken place since the inauguration of the present government in May 1999. The local and international media coverage of these incidents portrays them as ethno-religious in nature. However, our investigations show that this euphemism has helped in obscuring the visible roles of the state and its security