The Kaduna State police command has frowned at the torture of suspects during investigations and described it as illegal.
The Commissioner of Police in Kaduna, Mr. Agyole Abey, has therefore warned officers to stop the use of torture to forcibly extract information from suspects.
Abey, said the act was illegal and no longer fashionable and warned that the command would no longer tolerate any such act.
The Commissioner stated command’s position at a training of Judiciary Actors on promoting the United Nations Convention Against Torture in Nigeria.
Represented by Mr. Abdulazeez Sanni, an Assistant Commissioner, Abey said that the command was aware of certain force was applied on suspects to compel suspects to confess to an alleged crime.
This, he said constitutes a criminal and act of human cruelty by any police personnel involved.
The commissioner said: “The use of force is criminal but with law enforcement, some existential conditions must be met to remove criminal liability.
“Accordingly, the UN basic principles on the use of force and firearms state that its use by law enforcement officials must be prescribed by law, necessary, proportionate and none-justifiable.
“Prompting the United Nations Convention Against Torture (PROCAT) in Nigeria is arduous task embarked upon by the organizers of this workshop ASF france and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).”he said
Speaking earlier, Head of Nigeria Office, ASF, France, Mrs. Angela Uwandu, said that, CSO had provided free legal services to over 80 victims of torture in Kaduna State since 2014.
She said the essence of the continued training of stakeholders was to lead the advocacy against torture in the various states where the CSO was working in the country according to the United Nations Convention on torture.
“We brought all these professionals together because when you look at the issue of torture, it requires some level of technicality.
“This issue for instance is not being highlighted and reported enough, that is why we are engaging the media. We need to bring about a change, because people act as though it is normal.
“This is not about the police or security agents alone, everyone has a role to play and in the cause of this training everyone will know their importance and we see ourselves as partners in progress.” she said.
Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF), otherwise known as “Lawyers Without Borders” is the organizers of the training as part of effort to check the prevalence of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.
This professionals who attended the training are from the Judiciary, Police, Prisons Service, Media and Civil Society Organizations (CSO),
They developed a Network Against Torture (NAT) Kaduna.
(NAN)
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