The Inspector
General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris has described a recent Amnesty
International report alleging torture in Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad
(SARS) detention cells as bias and unfortunate.
Similarly, the IGP
claimed that the police management was not given room to air their side of the
story before Amnesty rushed rushed to foreign media.
A new report by the
International agency alleged that the elite Nigerian police squad (SARS) set up
to combat violent crime tortures detainees to extract lucrative bribes and
confessions.
According to the
report, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad demands bribes, steals and extorts money
from criminal suspects and their families and is “fomenting a toxic climate of
fear and corruption.
Reacting to the
report in Abuja on Wednesday, IGP Idris said the Amnesty International has
taken a bias position against the Nigerian Police Force, adding that the report
did not reflect the position of the Police.
While alleging that
the Force was not given a chance to respond to the allegations in the report
before it was made public, the IGP explained that recently, Amnesty International
and other Civil Society Groups requested to inspect SARS detention facilities
and other police detention centres across the country and were allowed to do so
only for them to say the cells were prearranged and kept clean because they
were coming.
However, IGP Idris
warned police commanders and other senior officers to ensure their officers and
men operate within international best practices as the Police will not tolerate
any action that would bring embarrassment to the Force.
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