The attention of International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (InterSociety) has been drawn to a calculation error contained in our statement of Sunday, 25th Oct 2020 where we mistakenly stated that “30,400 unprocessed citizens died in police custodies across the country since 2004 or in the past 16 years”. The years under review includes 2020 technically deemed to have exhausted”.

Using a national projection (allowed in social science research) “from available independent statistics”, our statement ought to have correctly read ’71,040 police custodial deaths in 16 years or since 2004’ and not “30,400”. We therefore take apologetic responsibility for the calculation error even though there is no perfection in everything.

It must be stated further that our referenced two-page statement represents some total of the findings of several local and international reports on police brutality and corruption in Nigeria, dating back to 2004.

The reports highlighted in the first part of our statement issued on Sunday, 18th Oct 2020, include: “Rest in Pieces”, “Criminal Force”, “Everyone’s in the Game: Corruption in the Nigeria Police Force”, “I Can Kill You & Nothing Will Happen”, “Welcome to Hell Fire”, “You Have Signed Your Death Warrant”, “How NPF Illicitly Collected & Pocketed N53B At Nigerian Roadblocks In Three Years: 2009-2011”, “Welcome To Bleeding Republic Of Nigeria: Feb 2017”, “How NPF & Military Illicitly Pocketed N306B ($1B) At Southeast/South-South Roadblocks In Four Years: August 2015-Oct 2019”, “How Anambra Police SARS Killed & Dumped Its Slain Detainees At Ezu River: 2013”, “The Untold Story Of Ezu River Police SARS Killings (July 2017)”, “Detailed Chronology Of The Nigerian Military Massacre Operations In Eastern Nigeria: August 2015-Sept 2017 (Published In Jan 2019)”, etc

Also, there are presently 7,300 to 7,500 police formations in Nigeria including 17 Zonal Command Headquarters and 37 State/FCT Command Headquarters and as at 2018, there were 6,900 police formations including 128 area commands, 1,388 divisional commands, 1,579 police stations and hundreds of Police SARS and Anti Cult formations.

The number of NPF formations has recently been increased to about 7,300-7,500 formations. That is to say that even though Police SARS dominates the custodial torture and extrajudicial killing chart of the NPF, the following units or departments of the Force are also culpable: anti-fraud, special anti-robbery squad-State-SARS and F/SARS (“disbanded”), anti cult unit, general investigation, special fraud unit, Interpol liaison, homicide, cybercrime, anti-human trafficking, force intelligence department or FCIB/SCIB, special branch (criminal and special investigation bureau), department of criminal investigations or FCID/SCID and its annexes in Kaduna, Lagos, Enugu and Gombe; counter terrorism, anti kidnapping squad, and border and marine sectional formations.

71,040 Deaths (Not “30,400”) Recorded In Police Cells Since 2004

International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law hereby wish to state that using national projection via available independent research statistics that average of 10 unprocessed and untried citizens are killed monthly in Police custodies in each State across Nigeria since 2004.

This further translates to 370 persons monthly and 4,440 yearly, or 370 custodial deaths monthly multiple by one year-equals to 4,440, multiply by 16 years-equals to 71,040 custodial deaths.

In other words, Nigeria as a whole is most likely to have lost since 2004 a total of 71,040 unprocessed citizens to police extrajudicial killings mainly perpetrated by its SARS.

The NPF particularly its SARS has also earned notoriety in permanently disappearing hundreds, if not thousands of Nigerians every year. In other words, citizens arrested outside the law and taken into secret custodies are killed without the knowledge of their families and outside the confines of official records.

Signed: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Amaka Onuoha, Esq., Chinwe Umeche, Esq, Obianuju Igboeli, Esq., Ndidiamaka Bernard, Esq., and Comrade Sam Kamanyaoku

InterSociety’s Contacts: Mobile/WhatsApp: +2348174090052: Email: info@intersociety-ng.org: Website: www.intersociety-ng.org

Source: The Street Reporters Newspaper 

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