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Amnesty International has said a unit of the Nigeria Police Force set up to combat violent crimes has resorted to systematic torture of detainees to extract confessions and bribes. In a statement released by the human rights organisation on Wednesday, officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have been accused of brutality against detained suspects and confiscation of property belonging to the suspects or their relatives.

SARS is one of the units under the Nigeria Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department. The unit carries out arrest, investigation and prosecution of suspected armed robbers, murderers, kidnappers, hired assassins and other suspects involved in violent crimes.

Former detainees told Amnesty International they had been subjected to horrific torture methods, including hanging, starvation, beatings, and mock executions, at the hands of corrupt officers in the dreaded SARS. According to Amnesty, a 25-year-old fuel attendant in Onitsha, Anambra State, who was arrested by SARS after his employer had accused him of being responsible for a burglary at their business premises, was told by the police officers that he had signed his death warrant.

“The policemen asked me to sign a plain sheet. When I signed it, they told me I have signed my death warrant. They left me hanging on a suspended iron rod. My body ceased to function. I lost consciousness. When I was about to die they took me down and poured water on me to revive me,” the former detainee told the human rights organisation.

“Our research has uncovered a pattern of ruthless human rights violations where victims are arrested and tortured until they either make a ‘confession’ or pay officers a bribe to be released,” said Damian Ugwu, Amnesty International’s Nigeria researcher. “A police unit created to protect the people has instead become a danger to society, torturing its victims with complete impunity while fomenting a toxic climate of fear and corruption.”

Amnesty International said it found 130 detainees living in overcrowded cells in Abuja known as the ‘Abattoir’, which is one of the various locations where SARS detainees are held. Some family members told Amnesty that SARS officers stole their cars or withdrew all the money from their bank accounts.
 
The brother of a man arrested on suspicion of participating in an armed robbery narrated to Amnesty International how a team of SARS officers raided his home in Nsukka. He said, “The police team from SARS forcefully broke into boxes, locked furniture and drawers. By the time they left, several items including watches, jewellery and shoes were missing. We were too scared to report the incident.”

The Amnesty International researcher, Ugwu, said in Nigeria, it seems that torture is a lucrative business. When asked by Amnesty why no police officers have been suspended or prosecuted for torture, the police denied knowledge of any torture.

“This lack of accountability breeds and perpetuates impunity, creating an environment where SARS officers believe they have carte blanche to carry out acts of torture,” said Ugwu. “Our research has exposed the callous workings of a police squad operating outside of the law and inflicting daily brutality on Nigerians who are often legally powerless to defend themselves against criminal accusations, let alone from the torture meted out by SARS.”

The Nigeria Police Force launched a human rights manual in December 2014 which prohibits torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, but the Amnesty report says SARS has failed to implement it.

With efforts by the Nigerian government to end torture proving ineffective, the human rights body has urged the authorities to ensure that officers responsible for such human rights violations are held accountable. Amnesty said police brutality is a stain on Nigerian society that must be addressed.