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Nigeria wants to reform cops
26/11/2007 21:20 - (SA)
Abuja - Nigeria has asked Britain to help it reform and train its police force, which has drawn international criticism for corruption and brutality, the interior minister said on Monday.
Human rights groups and UN experts have accused Nigerian
police of killing suspects without justification and torturing
those in detention.
Nigeria is also plagued by frequent armed robberies and
motorists complain police roadblocks appear to be more effective
at collecting bribes than fighting crime.
Interior Minister Godwin Abbe said Nigerian President Umaru
Yar'Adua had asked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for help at a Commonwealth summit in Uganda that ended on Sunday.
Abbe said: "The British government is ready to support us in
reorganising the Nigeria Police Force and empower it to carry out its assigned role of ensuring law and order."
Police have made little headway
Abbe said a committee would soon be set up to work on details
of an assistance programme from Nigeria's former colonial ruler.
National police chief Mike Okiro said two weeks ago that
police had killed 785 suspected armed robbers in three months
and lost 62 of their men, prompting campaigners to call for a
probe of the extra-judicial killings.
Armed robbers target private homes, public places and
vehicles stuck in traffic jams. They often mount roadblocks to
rob people on the highways. Police have made little headway in
stopping robberies despite their drastic methods.
Officers routinely torture suspects, shooting them in the
legs, beating them and hanging them from the ceiling to extract
confessions, a UN special representative had said in March.
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