Nigeria: a state governed by torture

Update: Moses Akatugba was officially pardoned in May 2015 and released a statement publicly thanking Amnesty International activists around the world for their support.

At age sixteen, Moses Akatugba’s life changed forever when he was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery in 2005.

Eight years on, without a fair trial and after enduring shocking police brutality, Moses was sentenced to death for allegedly stealing three mobile phones. In a justice system that fails to prevent torture, Moses’ appeal to the Nigerian courts is unlikely to be heard.

As his life hangs in limbo, the reports of torture in Nigeria continue to increase.

A stolen future

Instead of celebrating his high school exam results with his classmates, Moses was subjected to cruel punishments at the hands of the Nigerian police.

After his arrest, he describes being shot in the hand and repeatedly beaten by soldiers. Police showed Moses a body of a dead man, and when he was unable to identify him, he was beaten again.

In the first 24 hours of his arrest, no one knew where 16-year-old Moses was — not his mother, his friends or an accessible lawyer. If he had the basic right to see or contact his family or a lawyer, Moses could have been protected from torture.

He spent three months in police detention. Police used cruel interrogation techniques, beating him with machetes and batons, and using pliers to pluck his fingernails and toenails to force two confessions.

Abuse of power

A UN Special Rapporteur reported in 2007 that torture in Nigeria is “an intrinsic part of how the police operate within the country.”

Authorities have a lack of political will to adhere to human rights violations, 
targeting people accused of any links to militant Islamist group, Boko Haram.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, condemns Nigeria — a leadership power in Africa — as military have filmed torture of captives on film. “What does it say about a country when members of its military carry out such unspeakable acts and then deliberately capture the images on film?”

Since 2013, police and military personnel have arrested an estimated 2,000 people, detained at just three facilities — a majority of detainees have never had a fair trial.

The pain of torture is unbearable. I never thought I would be alive till this day. The pain I went through in the hands of the officers was unimaginable

Torture victim Moses Akatugba

When Moses was scheduled to be convicted, the investigating officer failed to show up. His future relied on a victim’s statement and the two confessions he was tortured to give.

Lack of legal protection

Rights guaranteed under international and Nigerian constitutional law are poorly enforced or not enforced at all, such as the right to access to lawyers and family, the right to be spoken to in a language you can understand, and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Moses maintains that the charges against him are false and unjustified.

“The pain of torture is unbearable. I never thought I’d survive. The pain I went through in the hands of the officers was unimaginable,” Moses said.

Despite Nigeria’s constitutional commitment to prohibiting torture and other inhuman treatment, it has become an everyday practice in society and complaints about torture rarely result in investigation.

There was a small glimmer of legal hope in 2009, when the National Committee Against Torture was formed. However, years on, the committee is yet to receive any funding, run entirely by volunteers and unable to carry out any work effectively.

More recently, in 2012, a bill intended to criminalise the use of torture by law enforcers was submitted for debate at the National Assembly.

Nigeria is no closer to enforcing this law, as yet again, the debate was not raised and the human rights violations against thousands were forgotten.

You can help

The torture in Nigeria is escalating. We need to act now.

Urgent action is needed to give people like Moses justice and stop torture in Nigeria once and for all.

You can help Moses and others like him by adding your voice to our petition to save his life and bring his torturers to justice.