The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris has said the claim by Amnesty International (AI) that Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), use torture as their only form of interrogation was untrue.
The IG in his statement warned police commanders and other senior officers to make sure their officers and men operate within international best practices as the Nigerian Police will not tolerate any action that would bring embarrassment to the Force.
The AI, a human rights organisation, had on Wednesday, when it presented a report on the use of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment by the SARS, claimed that the only known form of interrogation of suspects by Nigerian Police SARS was the use of torture.
Damian Ugwu, AI Nigerian Researcher, who stated this, added that some of SARS’ major forms of torture are beating, starvation, prolonged detention and hanging.
The claim is hinged on a 2014 report issued by AI entitled, “Welcome to hellfire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria.”
The report shows that torture and other inhuman measure to interrogate suspects, were common and routine in military and police custody across Nigeria.
The report also claimed that SARS always asks for bribes, steals and extorts money from suspects and their families, a situation AI said has been “fomenting a toxic climate of fear and corruption”.
However, the IGP on Wednesday in Abuja refuted the report and described it as being bias and unfortunate.
He argued that Amnesty rushed to foreign media to make its claim, without recourse to police management to tell their own side of the story.
He claimed that the report did not reflect the position of the Police. He regretted that the force after allowing AI and other civil society groups, on request to inspect SARS detention facilities and other police detention centres across the country, all they could come up with was to say that the cells were prearranged and kept clean because they were coming.
