The United States 2020 Human Rights report says Nigeria recorded high human rights abuses in the year which included unlawful detention, arbitrary killings by both government and non-state actors; forced disappearances by the government, terrorists, and criminal groups.
The report also stated that the abuses are torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government and terrorist groups; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention by government and non-state actors; political prisoners
It stated that the Nigeria police, army and other security services often used force to disperse protesters and apprehend criminals and suspects, adding that the Police forces engage in crown-control using nonlethal tactics, such as firing tear gas, before escalating their use of force.
“There were reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary, unlawful, or extrajudicial killings. At times authorities sought to investigate, and when found culpable, held police, military, or other security force personnel accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody, but impunity in such cases remained a significant problem.
“State and federal panels of inquiry investigating suspicious deaths did not always make their findings public,” part of the report stated.
The report further disclosed that Nigeria has a problem with independence of the judiciary and that there were arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, serious abuses in an internal conflict, including killing and torture of civilians; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including the existence of criminal libel laws.
The report revealed that though the Nigeria’s government had took some steps to investigate alleged abuses by police, including the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and military forces, but impunity remained a significant problem.
It stated that interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, in particular for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; severe restrictions on religious freedom; serious acts of corruption were wide spread.
According to the report, “The government took some steps to investigate alleged abuses by police, including the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and military forces, but impunity remained a significant problem. There were reports of further progress in “formally separating and reintegrating child soldiers previously associated with the Civilian Joint Task Force, a non-governmental self-defense militia, which received limited state government funding.
“Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa continued attacks on civilians, military, and police; recruited and forcefully conscripted child soldiers; and carried out scores of person-borne improvised explosive device attacks– mainly by coerced young women and girls– and other attacks on population centers in the Northeast and in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger”.
