By Juliana Francis
As the curtains begin to fall in the Year 2022, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) highlights some of the major human rights and security issues that featured prominently and shaped the human rights landscape of Nigeria in 2022.
RULAAC, having looked at several, decided to settle on 21 incidents and issues, which they felt were worth mentioning, and taking a second glance at.
These cases and incidents have been picked and placed in no order of importance.
- Governor Sanwo-Olu tackles Police CSP
One of the early topical issues that heralded 2022 between the first and second weeks of January was the incident at Magodo between the Lagos State Governor Mr. Babajide Sanwolu and a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) who led a police team dispatched from Abuja by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney General (AG) of the Federation to enforce a court order over land in dispute.
The governor had gone to stop the police officers who had laid siege to the Estate but met resistance from the team leader, a CSP.
The CSP was later found to have been accompanied by Sheriffs and Bailiffs to levy execution of a court judgement.
Among the first set of citizens who reacted were those who wondered how a CSP could challenge the authority of a state governor.
In fact, they wondered how the IGP and the AG of the Federation could dispatch Police officers all the way from Abuja to lay siege to an estate in Lagos without the courtesy of referring to the governor of the state.
It turned out that the issue was a longstanding dispute over some parcels of land at the estate and the refusal by the Lagos State government to obey and comply with court Orders
Others who reacted saw it as oppression of the poor by the Lagos State government which took from the poor to give to the rich.
They argued that the governor lacked the power to stop the police officers as, by virtue of Section 15 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act, 2004, the police officers were carrying out their lawful duty.
The incident brought to the fore two issues; the refusal by the Lagos State government to comply with the Supreme Court judgement for 12 years, and the urgency of decentralizing policing.
Advocates of state police latched on the incident to renew their call for the creation of state police in Nigeria.
While proponents of state police argued that state police are the panacea for police ineffectiveness and insecurity in Nigeria, its opponents grounded their opposition on the fears that state police would be abused and misused by tyrannical state governors.
Proponents counter that the federal police has also not been immune from abuse by federal powers who control and manipulate it yet are unable to adequately fund it.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, referring to that incident said: “For us in RULAAC, our view was that what was called for was an informed debate on the need or otherwise to allow states to create their own police. The debate is to assess and determine, between the advantages and disadvantages of state police, which outweigh the other, and if there are measures that could be put in place to address the fears of those who oppose it. In the coming year, RULAAC intends to initiate and facilitate this debate by working with the National Assembly, other CSOs, and the media.”
- Mismanagement of the Police Trust Fund
The second major incident for RULAAC that shaped the Year 2022 was the mismanagement of the Police Trust Fund.
In 2022, RULAAC led sustained CSO’s efforts in monitoring the implementation of the Police Trust Fund (PTF) Act and tracking and disseminating information on the management of the PTF funds.
A total sum of no less than N151bn was approved for the NPTF within the past three years of its existence.
The National Assembly abdicated its responsibility to oversight and ensure accountability for the huge public funds it put in the hands of the trust fund managers.
The Nigeria Police Force for which the trust fund was set up to provide an additional window for funding, to augment its poor annual budgetary allocations by providing state-of-the-art modern operational equipment, training, and retraining among other needs, yet to benefit from or feel the impact of the trust fund.
Instead, the NPF provided the office space that the NPTF currently uses.
Since 2021, the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC) has been investigating a petition arising from the ‘’procurement’’ of substandard operational vehicles for the NPF.
Specifically, ICPC has been investigating allegations of mismanagement, corruption, breach of due process, non-consultation with the police to determine their needs, and allegation by the chairman of the PTF himself that the board of trustees which her heads were not informed and approved obtained for the procurement done by the Executive Secretary.
Sometime this year, and while the investigation by the ICPC was still ongoing, the same substandard vehicles were commissioned by President Buhari.
Civil society organisations (CSO) led by RULAAC, communicated their objections to the President’s action stating that it amounted to interference and subversion of an ongoing investigation; it is contradictory to the President’s anti-corruption mantra and represents a boost to corruption.
Civil society also repeatedly called on the ICPC to conclude its investigation, make the report of its investigation public and take appropriate actions against those indicted.
More than one year after the ICPC commenced this investigation, RULAAC filed a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking the ICPC to make available the report of its investigation.
Nwanguma noted: “But that request has not as much as even been acknowledged to date. In the coming year, RULAAC will follow up with an action in court seeking to compel ICPC to respond to the FoI request.
It was clearly stated that the vehicles purchased for the NPF by the NPTF did not meet the specific needs of the police
“It was a huge shame that the corruption allegations had not been resolved and the President went ahead to ‘commission’ the vehicles procured through an alleged corrupt process.
“The Executive Secretary of the NPTF, Mr. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto who was involved in the NPTF corruption allegations later resigned to contest elections in Sokoto State and was replaced by yet another politician from Sokoto, Mr. Abdullahi Bala.
“This was in total disregard of the objections raised by civil society concerning appointing both the chairman and executive secretary of the NPTF from one section of the country in contravention of the national character principle enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
It will be recalled that Ahmed Aliyu had lost the gubernatorial primary election under APC in Sokoto in 2019 before his appointment as Executive Secretary of the PTF, and while in that position, he still had his eyes on another contest for the same position in 2023.
Ahmed Aliyu, a former deputy governor of Sokoto State is the APC governorship candidate for Sokoto State in the coming 2023 elections.
The PTF is no doubt, one of the avenues for President Buhari to dispense political patronage and help political allies fund-raise for their political ambitions by stealing public funds.
Otherwise, what expertise in management at such a strategic level did Aliyu Sokoto have to qualify him for such an appointment apart from being a friend and ally, for years, to former Sokoto State Governor, Magatakarda Wamakko, now a Senator?
The tenure of the BOT of the PTF- which was inaugurated one year after the Act was signed into law – ended in June this year but the members have remained on the Board.
“The PTF is entering its 4th year and has about two more years to the end of its statutory 6 years’ life span under the Establishment Act unless it is extended by an Act of the National Assembly. The National Assembly must not stop at just making laws setting up public institutions and allocating public funds to them. They must effectively oversight them and hold them accountable for the management of public funds.
“RULAAC will continue to lead the charge in monitoring the management of the NPTF to ensure transparency and accountability and the realisation of the purpose of the Police Trust Fund. We like to repeat diversion, theft or mismanagement of public funds meant to improve the capacity of security agencies to provide safety and security for citizens should be treated as a threat to national security,” said Nwanguma.
- The disappearance of arms from the police armoury
The third most striking incident in the security sector for RULAAC in the year under review was the disappearance of arms from police armoury.
While the dust from the mismanagement of the PTF funds and President Buhari’s ill-advised decision to commission substandard vehicles procured for the police in contravention of the PTF Act was yet to settle, the Auditor-General of the Federation, in his report to the National Assembly, revealed the disappearance of arms from the Nigeria Police Armoury.
The report revealed that 178,459 arms and ammunition were found missing from the Nigeria police armoury.
There was further information in a report by a researcher for the European Union which stated that the 12-year-long insurgency was powered by state-owned arms carted by terrorists after attacks on military bases, which were then used to fight the state.
Long after these scandalous revelations hit the headlines and were still trending, the Nigeria Police authorities did not respond.
Neither the Minister of Police Affairs nor the President said anything by way of demanding an explanation from the police hierarchy.
As RULAAC said then, Nigerians deserved to know because it is about their resources and their safety and security.
Nwanguma stated: “Few months to the end of Buhari’s two terms as President and despite his promise to lead the fight against insecurity from the front, as a retired military General, need we look further to understand why insecurity continues to grow under this incompetent regime?
“Throughout 2022, reports remained rife about millions of arms in wide circulation, in the hands of non-state actors including bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, and armed robbers. While Boko Haram terrorists and bandits continued to terrorise fellow citizens in the North, Nigerians in the South-East continued to live with the tragic reality of so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ Senseless attacks on police and INEC infrastructure continued with the police largely lacking in capacity to defend themselves, let alone defend fellow citizens.
The disappearance of police arms and ammunition raised security concerns. It’s a red flag for corruption and likely complicity in crimes by those charged with the responsibility for keeping police arms.”
- Attack on journalist, Agba Jalingo’s family
In 2022, freedom of expression and media freedom came under severe attacks by state security actors.
Many journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders, and whistle-blowers also came under attack by security agencies simply for speaking out against bad government actions or for exposing corruption.
Active citizens who posted information critical to government officials were arrested. Some even disappeared.
The civic space continued to shrink as the government sought to instill fear in the citizens through a clampdown on the basic democratic freedoms that define the civic space.
Police besieged the Lagos home of publisher Agba Jalingo on Friday, August 19, 2022, during which his wife and daughter were reportedly taken, hostage.
Simultaneously, his office in Calabar, Cross River State was also besieged, and his staff was held hostage by unknown persons.
While those who besieged his office in Calabar took flight upon sighting police and the state security services (SSS) operatives who arrived upon being alerted by Agba Jalingo’s staff, he was eventually arrested by police officers in Lagos after he demanded and was informed that he was being arrested for alleged defamation of the character of the wife of Frank Ayade, the brother of the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade.’
- The residence of Mr. Olanrenwaju Suraju attacked
The residence of Mr. Olanrenwaju Suraju, the Executive Director, of Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) was broken into in the early hours of 28th March 2022 by armed men who tied him and his wife up and subjected them to brutal and humiliating treatment in the presence of their children.
The police ignored calls to investigate this dastardly act to unravel those behind it.
Suraju is a frontline anti-corruption crusader exposing corrupt practices by powerful former and serving public officials in Nigeria.
- The arrest of publisher of 247ureports.com
Mr. Ikenna Elis-Ezenekwe, publisher of 247ureports.com was arrested by men from the IGP Monitoring Team for no clearly stated offence at the prompting of a politician, Chief Primus Odili, a former Chief of Staff to the former governor of Anambra, Willie Obiano.
He was detained and released after some days without charge following public calls for his release.
- Police target RULAAC Executive Director
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma was also invited by police authorities in Edo State Police Command for calling for an investigation of alleged corruption by the former Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, now promoted AIG despite his human rights record and petitions against him to the Police Service Commission. He received threats for refusing to honour the illegal invitation.
RULAAC noted: “We cannot think of democracy without freedom of expression. The two are inseparable. We can’t talk of democracy in a country where the people cannot freely associate, peacefully assemble and freely express themselves without hindrance and interference by security agencies. The law is clear enough that citizens do not need the permission of the police to exercise their constitutional rights. It is the duty of security agencies to provide protection for people wishing to exercise their rights, not to hinder the exercise of such rights under any subterfuge.”
- DSS DG’s hostile comment on human rights
The government has not hidden its discomfort with the work and perseverance of civil society organisations and the media.
Some government officials are even hostile to the idea of human rights.
Recall that recently the DG of the DSS was reported to have said that those who preach human rights were making the work of security agencies difficult.
But RULAAC had replied to him, “human rights are not in conflict with security. Security agencies are expected to act as guardians of human rights. Human rights are established by law. Law enforcement agencies are also established by law to enforce laws including human rights laws. They must, therefore, carry out their duties within the boundaries prescribed by law.”
- Amnesty International’s report on #EndSARS protests
As at date, many innocent citizens arrested, detained, and charged to court on account of their participation in the #EndSARS protests in October 2020 remain in custody two years after their arrest, with their trials deliberately stalled. Many of them have not appeared in court again after their initial arraignment.
This injustice has been confirmed by both Amnesty International in a report released this year and some civil society groups working on criminal justice reforms
“In the coming year, RULAAC will work with its lawyers under its access to justice project to fight for the freedom of these political detainees,” says Nwanguma.
- Human rights violations rife in Imo State
RULAAC received several information concerning arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, torture, extortion, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances by the police in Imo State
Young people have become endangered species in Imo State because of the predatory activities of unscrupulous police officers.
Imo State is unarguably the centre of the most coordinated attacks by sundry criminal groups, ‘unknown gunmen’, and other criminal gangs masquerading as separatist groups.
They mainly target the police, other security agencies, and offices of INEC.
The police should be empowered to defend themselves and others under any form of threat. But the response of law enforcement agencies to attacks by criminal gangs has been mainly predatory, vindictive, and indiscriminate, targeting and victimizing innocent and law-abiding citizens.
Reacting to the near state of anarchy in Imo State, Nwanguma said: “It is unacceptable that the police and other security agencies will continue to suffer attacks and casualties in the hands of criminals anywhere in Nigeria. RULAAC condemned the barbaric and dehumanizing treatment, torture and butchering of a military couple in Imo State simply because they were military personnel.”
- Gunmen attack AIG Zone 12, Audu Madaki
At RULAAC’s 11th position of issues that shaped the Year 2022 was the attack on the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 12, headquartered in Bauchi State AIG Audu Madaki.
In the attack, the AIG’s Orderly was killed, while the AIG was left with gunshot injuries and hospitalised.
Reports indicate that the AIG was on his way to Abuja from Bauchi when the suspected terrorists ambushed and attacked him.
RULAAC condemned the unfortunate attack.
- Police neutralise, repel gunmen’s attack on INEC office
Imo State Policemen this year, repelled and killed gunmen who came to attack INEC’s office in Owerri, Imo State. Before that incident, many INEC offices had been attacked.
It was almost as if the gunmen did not want the forthcoming election to hold, seeming to prefer the madness in Imo State.
The Imo State Police Command was commended for engaging and ‘neutralising’ some of the gunmen and arresting others.
- Security agencies attacking communities, burning houses
There were many cases and reports of security agencies attacking a whole community and burning down houses, shops, and vehicles.
There were also reports of security agencies killing some community members in retaliation for attacks or the killing of police officers in the community.
In some cases, it was merely on account of a wanted suspect being a member of that community.
According to RULAAC, burning of houses by security agencies is not a civilized approach to policing or law enforcement in this modern age. Security agencies cannot fight crime by also committing a crime.
“If a house is suspected to have been used to commit crimes or inhabited by people believed to have committed a crime, such as holding a kidnapped person hostage, the government can take over the property following the prescribed legal process,” stated RULAAC.
- Predatory policing by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of Imo State Police Command
There were several incidents of predatory targeting of innocent citizens by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command.
The Unit is alleged to be notorious for arresting young people, detaining them incommunicado without trial, torturing them to self-incriminate, and extorting money from their family members when they eventually manage to trace them to the facility.
They hide under the guise of combating IPOB and kidnapping to abuse the human rights of citizens.
RULAAC intervened in some cases and successfully secured the freedom of some of the victims.
The case of Gloria Okorie was well publicized. Many other cases have also been documented by RULAAC.
- The Ebubeagu menace in Ebonyi and Imo States
The activities of Ebubeagu in Ebonyi State and Imo State are horrific. In Ebonyi, many political opponents of the governor have been arrested, detained, tortured, and threatened.
In Imo state, members of Ebubeagu have been accused of mass atrocities, killings, vandalism, abductions, and rape.
There have been reports of communities in different parts of Imo State, especially in the Orlu axis, invaded by security operatives, setting houses on fire and opening fire on family members, young and old as well as people going about their businesses.
Many of the burnt houses are family houses not inhabited only by the persons being accused or sought for by security operatives. Youths of many of the affected communities have abandoned their communities and fled for fear of being arrested or murdered.
RULAAC and other civil society organisations issued joint statements calling on Governor Hope Uzodinma to investigate the excesses of Ebubeagu, bring perpetrators to account, and guarantee the safety of people living in communities.
The governor has not ordered an investigation into these numerous allegations of human rights violations committed by members of Ebubeagu who report to him, with a view to bringing perpetrators to account.
Arbitrary arrests, detention and torture contravene sections 33 and 34 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which guarantee the right to life and the right to dignity of the human person, respectively, as well as sections 35 and 36, which provide for the right to personal liberty and the right to a fair hearing. Nigeria is a party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- Extortion of police trainees in Police College
Sometime this year, there was information that 445 police trainees at Police Training College, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State were going through serious extortion at the hands of the authorities of the Training School.
RULAAC promptly alerted the authorities at the Force Headquarters and called for urgent intervention to save the police trainees from the oppressive and exploitative activities of the authorities of the Training school.
The trainees complained that while they were being denied allowances due to them, they were still being extorted by the authorities RULAAC was later informed that the Force Headquarters ordered an investigation into this incident.
- Detention of civilians in military guardrooms
This year, RULAAC alerted military authorities on the practice of detaining civilians in the military guardrooms.
There was one case in which a citizen was detained for three months over alleged illegal vendoring of Military accouterments.
RULAAC sought for explanations from military authorities, to know if the military had become an investigative agency. Following this intervention, the military promptly handed the citizen who over to the DSS.
- Suspicion of the military providing cover for criminals
This year RULAAC and other civil society organisations in Nigeria conveyed serious concerns about growing insecurity, killings, and allegations of the likely involvement of personnel of the armed forces in providing cover for bandits and kidnappers.
CSOs were particularly concerned about increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom in the Okigwe axis of Abia State and the Southeast in general.
This prompted youths and people of Isuochi in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State to protest demanding the removal of military checkpoints in the area since the presence of the military had not improved security in their area but rather seemed to provide cover for the criminals.
Nigerians were alarmed when a prelate of the Methodist church who was kidnapped along with his two colleagues and released after the church contributed money for ransom made revelations about the likely involvement of the military in the crimes.
Similar revelations were also made by security sources and victims suggesting that the military was likely to be complicit in the increasing cases of crime in the Okigwe axis.
- The shooting of policemen attached to Burna Boy
On Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at Club Cubana on Victoria Island, Lagos State, one of the five policemen attached to a popular artist, Burna Boy, opened fire in the club, resulting in injury to two persons at the nightclub.
While condemning the unwarranted shooting at such a public space, RULAAC wondered why the Police investigation into the incident has not led to any known action against the chief perpetrator. The police officers were reported to have been taken into custody.
RULAAC said: “It is embarrassing that in spite of repeated directives by successive IGPs to the contrary, police authorities continued to assign police officers to private individuals, reducing police officers to private guards and errand boys and girls for wealth-flaunting individuals.”
- IGP goes tough on indiscipline during the year
In 2022, RULAAC commended the Inspector General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba for getting tough on police officers who engaged in acts of misconduct.
It was reassuring that the NPF was beginning to prioritize and get serious with discipline and accountability.
In one month alone, the NPF, on the directives of the IGP dismissed and dekitted police officers for various acts of misconduct, corrupt practice, extortion, incivility, and brutality.
- Remand of human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong to prison
In July 2022, a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, was sent to prison by a Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Ekaette Obot.
The lawyer was handling a case for his client before Justice Obot’s court in Uyo.
He was sent to prison for one month for alleged contempt. Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, had condemned the action.
Another human rights lawyer, Jude Igbanoi, speaking during RULAAC end-of-year summation of human rights violations in Nigeria, recalled the incident, stressing that it was shocking the way Effiong was treated.
He said that Effiong’s crime was in stating that armed policemen inside the courtroom made him uncomfortable.
Igbanoi said that such treatments also showed that anyone could be harassed and assaulted.
His words: “If lawyers can be harassed by security agencies, then who are we, journalists, and civil society organisations, that they can’t do the same too? A woman magistrate was assaulted for trying to do her job. Human rights defenders are the most targeted.”
