Posted by From Omon-Julius Onabu in Benin City on
Detainees Feed on N9 Per DayNigerian citizens who in prisons custody are entitled to a daily ration of food worth N9:00K only.
Detainees Feed on N9 Per DayNigerian citizens who in prisons custody are entitled to a daily ration of food worth N9:00K only.
This startling revelation about the human rights situations in Nigeria, particularly as it affects police detainees, came to light during the fact finding visit to Edo State Police Command headquarters in Benin City by the state chapter of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
Responding to a litany of concerns expressed by the state NBA Chairman, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, who led a delegation of the body's officers to his office, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muktar Abbas, said it was the reality of the working conditions of the police in Nigeria that gave the impression that they often deny detainees basic rights.
The commissioner said only N3:00 per meal is approved for, or allocated to each suspect in police custody, which accounts for the observation that persons 'chatting" with the police in Nigeria are often subjected to inhuman treatment, including worthless feeding.
Similarly, no single bed, talk-less of beddings, exists in most of the police stations in the country, while the most official stationery such as files and detention forms are hardly available for policemen to carry out their official duties.
Abbas, who frowned at the practice by certain lawyers in the state who encourage their clients to write frivolous petitions especially alleging threat to life, advised NBA to include the police in its planned human rights campaign.
Unfolding the said human rights programme, including a stakeholders' conference before the end of the year, Obayuwana solicited the co-operation of the police authorities in actualizing the lofty objectives of the NBA.
In his address, he noted: 'As lawyers, we are concerned with the circumstances under which, as a matter of routine, fellow citizens are deprived of their rights to liberty and freedom of movement (that is, the existence of probable cause) and the level of force permissible in the process of effecting arrest.
'We worry about the general welfare of persons in custody and the sanitary condition of the cell….why persons suspected to have run afoul of law have to be stripped to near nakedness irrespective of the prevailing weather and ask if this practice accords with the dignity of suspects."