Inspector General of Police, IGP, Idris Ibrahim has reacted to a statement credited to Amnesty International that men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, use extreme torture to obtain bribe from arrested suspects.
“Our research has uncovered a pattern of ruthless human rights violations where victims are arrested and tortured until they either make a ‘confession’ or pay officers a bribe to be released,” Amnesty International had said.
The IGP, however, in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday, says the Nigeria Police has never been involved in torture.
He said, “The Nigeria Police Force in its entirety condemns every element of torture in the conduct of police operation in this country. And we have units on the ground to check some of these excesses.
“Nigeria Police Force has never been involved in any element of torture in all its activities in the cause of their investigation all over the country.”
The human right body accused SARS operatives of the habit of stealing from suspects.
Amnesty International, in a press document released yesterday alleged that suspects were often subjected to cruel methods that include starvation, hanging, beating and mock execution as a means of taking bribe.
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