“Everyone’s in on the Game”- Corruption and Human Rights Abuse in Nigeria
Countless ordinary Nigerians attempting to make precarious ends meet as taxi drivers,
market traders, and shopkeepers are accosted on a daily basis by armed police officers who
demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting
money. Those who fail to pay are frequently threatened with arrest and physical harm. Far
too often these threats are carried out. Meanwhile, victims of crime are obliged to pay the
police from the moment they enter a police station to file a complaint until the day their
case is brought before a court. In the shadows, high-level police officials embezzle
staggering sums of public funds meant to cover basic police operations. Senior police
officers also enforce a perverse system of “returns” in which rank-and-file officers are
compelled to pay up the chain of command a share of the money they extort from the public.
Those charged with police oversight, discipline, and reform have for years failed to take
effective action, thereby reinforcing impunity for police officers of all ranks who regularly
perpetrate crimes against the citizens they are mandated to protect.
The Nigeria Police Force, established in 1930, has a long history of engaging in
unprofessional, corrupt, and criminal conduct. Over the years, this unwieldy force—Africa’s
largest—has proved difficult to effectively manage and control and has become largely
unaccountable to the citizens it is meant to serve. Many Nigerian police officers conduct
themselves in an exemplary manner, working in difficult and often dangerous conditions—
some 250 policemen and women were shot and killed in the line of duty in 2009—but for
many Nigerians the police force has utterly failed to fulfill its mandate of providing public
security. Indeed, 80 years after its birth, members of the force are viewed more as predators
than protectors, and the Nigeria Police Force has become a symbol in Nigeria of unfettered
corruption, mismanagement, and abuse.
Extortion, embezzlement, and other corrupt practices by Nigeria’s police undermine the
fundamental human rights of Nigerians in two key ways. First, the most direct effect of police
corruption on ordinary citizens stems from the myriad human rights abuses committed by
police officers in the process of extorting money. These abuses range from arbitrary arrest
and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including physical and sexual assault,
torture, and even extrajudicial killings.
The police frequently extort money from the public at taxi stands, in marketplaces, or while
going about their daily lives. However, the most common venue for extortion occurs at police
roadblocks, ostensibly put in place to combat crime. In practice, these checkpoints have
3 Human Rights Watch | August 2010
become a lucrative criminal venture for the police who routinely demand bribes from drivers
and passengers alike, in some places enforcing a de facto standardized toll. Motorists are
frequently detained and endure harassment and threats until they or their family members
negotiate payment for their release. Extortion-related confrontations between the police and
motorists often escalate into more serious abuses. The police have on numerous occasions
severely beaten, sexually assaulted, or shot to death ordinary citizens who failed to pay the
bribes demanded.
The police commonly round up random citizens in public places, including mass arrests at
restaurants, markets, and bus stops. In some cases of blatant deception, plainclothes police
officers simply masquerade as commuter minibus drivers, pick up unsuspecting passengers
at bus stops, and take them at gunpoint to nearby police stations where they demand
money in return for their release. The police often make little effort to veil their demand for
bribes, brazenly doing so in open corridors and rarely bothering to question those in
detention about any alleged crime. Those who fail to pay are often threatened and unlawfully
detained, and at times sexually assaulted, tortured, or even killed in police custody. Many of
these abuses are perpetrated as a means to further extort money from ordinary citizens or
from fearful family members trying to secure the freedom of those detained.
Second, these criminal acts by the police, coupled with their failure to perform many of their
most basic functions, severely undermine the rule of law in Nigeria. The police routinely
extort money from victims to investigate a given criminal case, which leaves those who
refuse or are unable to pay without access to justice. Meanwhile, criminal suspects with
money can simply bribe the police to avoid arrest, detention, or prosecution, to influence the
outcome of a criminal investigation, or to turn the investigation against the victim.
Ordinary Nigerians are further denied equal protection under the law due to a widespread
practice whereby senior police officers sell for their own personal enrichment police
protection to Nigeria’s wealthy elite. By the inspector general of police’s own account, in
2009 at least 100,000 police officers were working as personal guards for the wealthy, at the
expense of the majority. In addition, the abject failure of the police to provide for the security
of ordinary citizens has led some communities to turn for protection to armed vigilante
groups who often operate outside the law and commit further abuses.
Police corruption affects nearly every Nigerian, though it disproportionately impacts
Nigeria’s poor. Those in precarious economic situations, scraping out a living day to day, are
more susceptible to police extortion because of the profound effects that unlawful detention,
or the mere threat of arbitrary arrest, have on their livelihoods. The sums regularly
“Everyone’s in on the Game” 4
demanded by the police also represent a larger portion of the poor’s income. Moreover,
many Nigerians are simply unable to pay the bribes required for basic police services.
Underlying many of these abuses is a cycle of corruption driven by senior police officers who
siphon off police funds at the top and enforce a scheme of collecting illicit “returns” from the
money extorted by junior officers.
High-level embezzlement of public funds destined for the police force indirectly impacts
human rights, as senior officials have squandered and stolen vast sums of money that could
have gone toward improving the capacity of the police to conduct patrols, respond to
emergency calls, or investigate crimes. In the most notorious case, in 2005, the then-
Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun resigned and was charged with embezzlement,
bribe-taking, and laundering more than US$98 million. In a plea bargain agreement later
that year, he pleaded guilty to failing to declare his assets. The court sentenced him to six
months in prison and ordered his assets seized. The deficits from massive embezzlement
and misappropriation of police funds lead the police to routinely demand bribes from
complainants to fund criminal investigations and to use torture as their primary tool for
collecting evidence from criminal suspects.
Money flows up the chain of command through the informal but widespread system of
returns in which subordinates pay their superiors a portion of the money they make from
bribes and extortion. Subordinates often pay their superiors to be assigned to positions
where they have ample opportunities to extract money from the public. Superior officers
frequently set monetary targets for subordinates assigned to these lucrative posts and
remove those who fail to meet their targets. Money continues up the chain of command as
officers who take returns from their subordinates pay their superiors in turn. This corrupt
system of returns not only encourages low-level police officers to commit abuses as a means
of extorting money, and effectively punishes those who do not, but it also creates a strong
disincentive for senior officers who personally benefit from the system of returns to hold
their subordinates accountable for extortion and other abuses.
The Nigerian government and the police leadership have on multiple occasions
acknowledged many of the problems described in this report. In recent years, the
government has launched several police reform initiatives, increased funding to the police
force, and improved police wages. Yet the government has generally failed to hold
accountable police officers who squander and steal police funds, much less the rank-andfile
who commit abuses. Public complaint mechanisms, internal police controls, and civilian
oversight remain weak, underfunded, and largely ineffective. The Nigerian government in
5 Human Rights Watch | August 2010
general and the police leadership in particular have thus far lacked the political will to
address these structural problems, follow through on reform initiatives, and implement
effective police oversight and accountability.
Human Rights Watch calls on the Nigerian government to immediately and effectively
address the dynamics that have given rise to and sustain endemic police corruption and its
related abuses, and ensure that those who perpetrate these crimes are held accountable.
The Nigeria Police Force should streamline and prioritize internal controls by establishing a
Public Complaints Unit at all police stations and restructuring its largely discredited internal
anti-corruption unit, the X-Squad. The Nigerian government should launch an independent
inquiry into corruption within the police force, focusing on the embezzlement and
misappropriation of police funds, the corrupt system of returns, and the sale of police
services by high-level police officials. The Nigerian government, including the National
Assembly, and the anti-corruption commissions should improve transparency and
accountability in the police force by reforming and ensuring better coordination of oversight
mechanisms; and authorities should investigate and prosecute without delay police officers
implicated in extortionhttp embezzlement, and human rights abuses.
see full report on//www.hrw.org,
market traders, and shopkeepers are accosted on a daily basis by armed police officers who
demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting
money. Those who fail to pay are frequently threatened with arrest and physical harm. Far
too often these threats are carried out. Meanwhile, victims of crime are obliged to pay the
police from the moment they enter a police station to file a complaint until the day their
case is brought before a court. In the shadows, high-level police officials embezzle
staggering sums of public funds meant to cover basic police operations. Senior police
officers also enforce a perverse system of “returns” in which rank-and-file officers are
compelled to pay up the chain of command a share of the money they extort from the public.
Those charged with police oversight, discipline, and reform have for years failed to take
effective action, thereby reinforcing impunity for police officers of all ranks who regularly
perpetrate crimes against the citizens they are mandated to protect.
The Nigeria Police Force, established in 1930, has a long history of engaging in
unprofessional, corrupt, and criminal conduct. Over the years, this unwieldy force—Africa’s
largest—has proved difficult to effectively manage and control and has become largely
unaccountable to the citizens it is meant to serve. Many Nigerian police officers conduct
themselves in an exemplary manner, working in difficult and often dangerous conditions—
some 250 policemen and women were shot and killed in the line of duty in 2009—but for
many Nigerians the police force has utterly failed to fulfill its mandate of providing public
security. Indeed, 80 years after its birth, members of the force are viewed more as predators
than protectors, and the Nigeria Police Force has become a symbol in Nigeria of unfettered
corruption, mismanagement, and abuse.
Extortion, embezzlement, and other corrupt practices by Nigeria’s police undermine the
fundamental human rights of Nigerians in two key ways. First, the most direct effect of police
corruption on ordinary citizens stems from the myriad human rights abuses committed by
police officers in the process of extorting money. These abuses range from arbitrary arrest
and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including physical and sexual assault,
torture, and even extrajudicial killings.
The police frequently extort money from the public at taxi stands, in marketplaces, or while
going about their daily lives. However, the most common venue for extortion occurs at police
roadblocks, ostensibly put in place to combat crime. In practice, these checkpoints have
3 Human Rights Watch | August 2010
become a lucrative criminal venture for the police who routinely demand bribes from drivers
and passengers alike, in some places enforcing a de facto standardized toll. Motorists are
frequently detained and endure harassment and threats until they or their family members
negotiate payment for their release. Extortion-related confrontations between the police and
motorists often escalate into more serious abuses. The police have on numerous occasions
severely beaten, sexually assaulted, or shot to death ordinary citizens who failed to pay the
bribes demanded.
The police commonly round up random citizens in public places, including mass arrests at
restaurants, markets, and bus stops. In some cases of blatant deception, plainclothes police
officers simply masquerade as commuter minibus drivers, pick up unsuspecting passengers
at bus stops, and take them at gunpoint to nearby police stations where they demand
money in return for their release. The police often make little effort to veil their demand for
bribes, brazenly doing so in open corridors and rarely bothering to question those in
detention about any alleged crime. Those who fail to pay are often threatened and unlawfully
detained, and at times sexually assaulted, tortured, or even killed in police custody. Many of
these abuses are perpetrated as a means to further extort money from ordinary citizens or
from fearful family members trying to secure the freedom of those detained.
Second, these criminal acts by the police, coupled with their failure to perform many of their
most basic functions, severely undermine the rule of law in Nigeria. The police routinely
extort money from victims to investigate a given criminal case, which leaves those who
refuse or are unable to pay without access to justice. Meanwhile, criminal suspects with
money can simply bribe the police to avoid arrest, detention, or prosecution, to influence the
outcome of a criminal investigation, or to turn the investigation against the victim.
Ordinary Nigerians are further denied equal protection under the law due to a widespread
practice whereby senior police officers sell for their own personal enrichment police
protection to Nigeria’s wealthy elite. By the inspector general of police’s own account, in
2009 at least 100,000 police officers were working as personal guards for the wealthy, at the
expense of the majority. In addition, the abject failure of the police to provide for the security
of ordinary citizens has led some communities to turn for protection to armed vigilante
groups who often operate outside the law and commit further abuses.
Police corruption affects nearly every Nigerian, though it disproportionately impacts
Nigeria’s poor. Those in precarious economic situations, scraping out a living day to day, are
more susceptible to police extortion because of the profound effects that unlawful detention,
or the mere threat of arbitrary arrest, have on their livelihoods. The sums regularly
“Everyone’s in on the Game” 4
demanded by the police also represent a larger portion of the poor’s income. Moreover,
many Nigerians are simply unable to pay the bribes required for basic police services.
Underlying many of these abuses is a cycle of corruption driven by senior police officers who
siphon off police funds at the top and enforce a scheme of collecting illicit “returns” from the
money extorted by junior officers.
High-level embezzlement of public funds destined for the police force indirectly impacts
human rights, as senior officials have squandered and stolen vast sums of money that could
have gone toward improving the capacity of the police to conduct patrols, respond to
emergency calls, or investigate crimes. In the most notorious case, in 2005, the then-
Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun resigned and was charged with embezzlement,
bribe-taking, and laundering more than US$98 million. In a plea bargain agreement later
that year, he pleaded guilty to failing to declare his assets. The court sentenced him to six
months in prison and ordered his assets seized. The deficits from massive embezzlement
and misappropriation of police funds lead the police to routinely demand bribes from
complainants to fund criminal investigations and to use torture as their primary tool for
collecting evidence from criminal suspects.
Money flows up the chain of command through the informal but widespread system of
returns in which subordinates pay their superiors a portion of the money they make from
bribes and extortion. Subordinates often pay their superiors to be assigned to positions
where they have ample opportunities to extract money from the public. Superior officers
frequently set monetary targets for subordinates assigned to these lucrative posts and
remove those who fail to meet their targets. Money continues up the chain of command as
officers who take returns from their subordinates pay their superiors in turn. This corrupt
system of returns not only encourages low-level police officers to commit abuses as a means
of extorting money, and effectively punishes those who do not, but it also creates a strong
disincentive for senior officers who personally benefit from the system of returns to hold
their subordinates accountable for extortion and other abuses.
The Nigerian government and the police leadership have on multiple occasions
acknowledged many of the problems described in this report. In recent years, the
government has launched several police reform initiatives, increased funding to the police
force, and improved police wages. Yet the government has generally failed to hold
accountable police officers who squander and steal police funds, much less the rank-andfile
who commit abuses. Public complaint mechanisms, internal police controls, and civilian
oversight remain weak, underfunded, and largely ineffective. The Nigerian government in
5 Human Rights Watch | August 2010
general and the police leadership in particular have thus far lacked the political will to
address these structural problems, follow through on reform initiatives, and implement
effective police oversight and accountability.
Human Rights Watch calls on the Nigerian government to immediately and effectively
address the dynamics that have given rise to and sustain endemic police corruption and its
related abuses, and ensure that those who perpetrate these crimes are held accountable.
The Nigeria Police Force should streamline and prioritize internal controls by establishing a
Public Complaints Unit at all police stations and restructuring its largely discredited internal
anti-corruption unit, the X-Squad. The Nigerian government should launch an independent
inquiry into corruption within the police force, focusing on the embezzlement and
misappropriation of police funds, the corrupt system of returns, and the sale of police
services by high-level police officials. The Nigerian government, including the National
Assembly, and the anti-corruption commissions should improve transparency and
accountability in the police force by reforming and ensuring better coordination of oversight
mechanisms; and authorities should investigate and prosecute without delay police officers
implicated in extortionhttp embezzlement, and human rights abuses.
see full report on//www.hrw.org,
Comments
Post a Comment