CDD: Security Agencies Killed 13,241 Nigerians in 10 Years

CDD: Security Agencies Killed 13,241 Nigerians in 10 Years

Security agencies in Nigeria have killed 13, 241 citizens since 2011, an International human rights organisation, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has said.

According to CDD, the extrajudicial killings executed by state actors have become the primary cause of death in the country. The organisation stated this in titled, ‘Democracy watch reports’, presented in Abuja.

While expressing concern over the nation’s shrinking civic space, CDD said democracy in Nigeria had been experiencing major setbacks in the last 22 years.

The Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan, while giving an overview of the report expressed regret that unlawful killings had become rife in the country since 1999.

According to her, many of the killings are perpetrated by security forces.

She said: “These unlawful killings go largely unpunished, thanks in part to Nigeria’s Force Order 237, which allows officers to use lethal force in ways that contravene international law, and because of government corruption and a prevailing culture of impunity.

“Successive governments in Nigeria have used unlawful killings to quell secessionist upheavals and terrorist activities, a practice that was exacerbated during President Muhammadu’s Buhari’s tenure – such as the unlawful killing of 350 Islamic Movement of Nigeria members by the Nigerian Army in 2015.

“It is pertinent to state that extrajudicial killings conducted by state actors has become the primary cause of death in the country. In fact, state actors have cumulatively killed 13, 241 people since 2011.”

According to her, over 70 per cent of the prison population was made up of detainees awaiting trial, with over 20 per cent waiting for more than a year.

She said the report observed an emergent trend of security officers receiving orders from elites in Nigeria to remand detainees for long on spurious grounds.

“Compounding the effects of illegal detention is the horrible detention situation in Nigeria that further exacerbates human rights violations. Overcrowding in Nigerian prisons has increased by more than 1000 per cent in the last decade,” she said.

Hassan added that governments had frequently invoked the pretext of ‘preventing terrorist actions’ to justify disrupting peaceful protests and social movements.

She stated that by doing so, the government had severely restricted Nigerians’ rights to assemble and demonstrate, in violation of constitutional provisions.

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