EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLINGS IN NIGERIA: ANALYSIS OF POLICE CRIME CONTROL MECHANISM IN THE APO 6 CASE

Abstract

It is an open secret that Nigeria has witnessed a lot of extrajudicial killings in recent times, especially by members of the law enforcement agencies. The rate of extra-judicial killings by the police in recent times has reached an alarming proportion. Each time it happens, the police authorities would protect the offending members of the force. And where the police find circumstances convenient to make a scapegoat of the victim, their claim would be that the victim was a suspected armed robber. The case of the Apo traders who were killed by policemen from the Garki division of the Nigeria police in 2005 remains a clear example of police brutality. On many occasions, this violence appears to have been unleashed with government complacency, and even outright complicity. "The federal police and the armed forces are responsible for numerous human rights violations on a regular basis in their policing activities, ranging from extrajudicial executions to death in custody, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of suspects. This situation was also corroborated by Amnesty International who noted that in many instances the Nigeria security agencies torture detainees in their cells to death. However, the police usually attribute such deaths in custody to alleged attempts to escape. Victims are labelled as armed robbers to deny them any form of popular sympathy and to justify inaction by superiors within the police who only rarely attempt to investigate these cases. Extra-judicial executions outside detention centres in Nigeria are often linked to operations by special task forces assigned to patrol streets and highways to check armed robbery, violence or illegal activities by some members of the police force, including illegal checkpoints set up to extort bribes from citizens. Amid general concern over crime, serious flaws in the legal system have permitted the police to routinely label citizens as "suspects of armed robbery or murder" without any evidence to secure their remand in prison awaiting trial for years.