Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN); has petitioned Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State seeking compliance with the Anti Torture Act 2017 in the state.
In a letter signed by its President, Olu Omotayo Esq., and made available to Ikengaonline in Enugu, the group demanded for justice in the arraignment in Court of Mr Sunday Nwobodo and five others after their alleged torture by the police in Enugu.
CRRAN in the letter stated that: “Based on a petition dated 16th September 2024, addressed to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, wherein we demanded for justice in respect of this case, the Police at the Octopus Base surreptitiously took the accused persons to court without notifying their relatives.
“They were arraigned before an Enugu Magistrates Court on the 19th day of September 2024, in Charge No. MEN/638C /2024, and Charge No. MEN/ 639C/ 2024, whereupon they were subsequently remanded in prison custody they were charged for being a member of IPOB, Armed Robbery and murder.”
The rights group also alleged that some of the relations of the accused persons, who later ran to court when they got information that they were brought to court painted a gory picture of the accused persons some of who were limping from torture inflicted on them.
“The relatives of the detainees further informed us that one of the detainees named Nwabunkeonye Nnamani whose condition was so bad because of his leg that was swollen due to torture was rejected by the officials of the Correctional Center on that fateful afternoon of 19th day of September 2024, and the Police had to take him back to their custody.
“We are made to understand that some of these accused persons, who were members of Neighbourhood watch at Akpawfu, Nkanu East, were screened by the DSS and the Police before they became members of neighborhood Watch at Akpawfu.
“Surprisingly the police labeled them killers and IPOB members and brutally tortured them and shot them on the legs to extract confessions from them while in police detention,” CRRAN said.
Omotayo noted that: “By virtue of Section 1, of the Anti-Torture Act 2017, responsibility is placed on every government in Nigeria to ensure that no citizen of this country is subjected to torture.
“We urge you to ensure that justice is done in respect of this matter.
“We further submit that the shooting of these persons on their legs while in police detention by the police during the course of interrogating them in order to obtain confessional statement from them amounts to torture and has no place or justification as under the Anti Torture Act.”
The rights group demanded for the cooperation of government and its relevant agencies in assisting the lawyers and relatives of the accused persons to ensure their right to have an independent and competent doctor of their choice to examine them pursuant to Section 6 of the Anti Torture Act.
“They should be granted access to competent doctor of their choice to examine them in view of the fact that they have gone through severe torture during police investigation.
“We further submit that, no matter the gravity of any offense by any citizens of this country no security agent has the right to shoot citizens on their legs in order to obtain confessional statement from them,” he said.
