CITIZENS United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria), an NGO has called on the police and relevant security agencies to publicly declare the number of people in their detention centres.

Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Sylvester Uhaa made the call in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

Uhaa urged the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) to compel the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris to declare publicly the number of people in police cells.

The NGO also asked the NHRC to direct other heads of other detaining agencies besides the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) to do same by letting Nigerians know how long the detainees had been in their custody.

The executive director, however, commended the recent directive by Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onoghen to all Chief Justices of the 36 states and FCT to mandate the magistrates to visit places of detention under their jurisdictions.

He said that the level of assessment of the visit would give the magistrates’ clear views of the condition of prisoners and detainees in other detention centres.

Uhaa described the directive by the CJN even though long overdue as critical and necessary in the collective effort to achieve effective and efficient administration of justice.

According to him, the measure will bring about respect for the rule of law, due process and protect human rights and dignity of Nigerians, especially the poor.

He said that the concern over cases of torture and human rights abuses in courts confirmed the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

“The only good news is that more and more Nigerians are becoming aware of their rights and the steps they can take to seek redress when their rights are violated.

“We urge the Chief Judges and the Magistrates to comply with this directive. Also, we ask that they embark on these visits unannounced and in company of NGOs and the media.

“This will help open up places of detention to public scrutiny. The current situation whereby police cells and other detention facilities are inaccessible to public scrutiny; to the extent that no one knows the number of people in police cells and other detention centres is not good,” he said.

Uhaa said that such practice would give room for abuses and exploitation of suspects by some law enforcement officers.

– Jul. 4, 2018 @ 09:25 GMT |