Release Of Results Of Police Station Visitation Conducted By National Human Rights Commission In Nigeria

Introduction

On behalf of the National Human Rights Commission, I warmly welcome you all to this press briefing, which is being organized to publicly announce the results and findings from our visits and inspection of police stations across the six geo-political zones of the country which was conducted from 18^th – 23^rd November 2013.

 

The visitation to police stations was conducted in line with the Commission’s  legal mandate as stated in Section 6 (1) [d] of the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act 2011, which empowers the Commission to visit prisons, police cells and other places of detention in order to ascertain the conditions thereof and make recommendations to the appropriate authorities.

Police Station Visitation 2013 in Nigeria

Summary

The Commission deployed its staff, local community citizens and groups to conduct the visitation. 1,115 visitors participated in the visits; 566 (51%) of them were females while 549 (49%) were male. 369 police stations were visited in 21 Police State Commands namely Abia, Abuja- FCT, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara states.  The visitors were sent in groups or teams; each team made up of an average of three persons. The visitors assessed each police station in 5 key areas namely –Community Orientation, Physical Conditions, Equal Treatment of members of the Public, Transparency and Accountability and Detention Conditions.

Based on the findings from the police station visitation the following police stations are the top scoring police stations in the Country.

1.      Karu Police Station, Abuja – 100%

2.      Ilupeju Police Station, Lagos – 97.33%

3.      Ikoyi Police Station, Lagos – 96%

4.      Adatan Police Station, Ogun – 95.33%

5.      Victoria Island Police Station, Lagos-  94.33%

6.      New Haven Police Station, Enugu – 93.67%

7.      Badagry( Lagos ) and Life Camp Police Station(Abuja)  – 92.33%

8.      Ijanikin Police Station – 91.33%

9.      Airport Command, Uyo  and Trade Fair Police Station (Lagos) – 91%

10. Birnin Kudu Police Station, Jigawa – 87.67%

The Summary of the performance of the top police stations in Nigeria in the 5 Indicator Areas: 

Police Stations	Community Orientation	Physical Conditions	Equal Treatment of the Public	Transparency and Accountability	Detention Conditions	Overall Average
Karu Police Station, Abuja	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Ilupeju Police Station, Lagos	96.67%	100%	96.67%	96.67%	96.67%	97.33%
Ikoyi Police Station, Lagos	93.33%	95%	91.67%	100%	100%	96%
Adatan Police Station, Ogun	95%	96.67%	93.33%	95%	96.67%	95.33%
Victoria Island Police Station, Lagos	90%	91.67%	96.67%	98.33%	95%	94.33%
New Haven Police Station, Enugu	95%	93.33%	81.67%	98.33%	100%	93.67%
Badagry Police Station, Lagos	100%	86.67%	85%	100%	90%	92.33%
Life Camp Police Station, Abuja	93.33%	93.33%	91.67%	90%	93.33%	92.33%
Ijanikin Police Station, Lagos	98.33%	91.67%	88.33%	88.33%	90%	91.33%
Airport Command, Uyo	96.67%	96.67%	78.33%	93.33%	90%	91%
Trade Fair Police Station, Lagos	96.67%	91.67%	83.33%	98.33%	85%	91%
Birnin Kudu Police Station, Jigawa	91.67%	90%	83.33%	86.67%	86.67%	87.67%

A detailed report on the performance of all police stations in the Police State Commands that participated in the visitation has been published in book form for public dissemination.

GOOD PRACTICES IDENTIFIED

Community Police Interactions: we have discovered that the Police Stations in Nigeria have imbibed the principle of Community Policing. There are more police stations that have ongoing community police interaction programs. These programs are given different names and are organised to fit local realities. These Police Stations are having interactions with local associations, artisans, voluntary policing groups, landlord residence associations etc.  The Community Police Interactive Platforms give the Police opportunity to interact with their local community members, they let them know how to make reports at the police stations, some of them have open forums for receiving and treating complaints, others have designated Alternative Dispute Resolution Officers and Neighborhood Watch Officers. Counseling services are also being provided by faith based groups. We found this in the following police stations that were visited in 2013.

1.      Orile Police Station, Lagos State Police Command

2.      Chanchaga Police Station, Niger State Police Command

3.      Ikono Police Station, Akwa Ibom State Police Command

4.      Umuezeala Police Station, Imo State Police Command

5.      Adeniji Adele Police Station, Lagos State Police Command

     6.  Gusau Police Station, Zamfara State Police Command

     7. Isokoko Police Station, Lagos State Police Command

    8. Victoria Island Police Station, Lagos State Police Command

Partnership with various service providers in some police stations: Service Providers have developed partnership with Police Stations to provide for them critical services like eye care and immunization programs. This our visitors saw at Dutse Alhaji and Life Camp Police Stations in Abuja.

Conclusion

Going forward, the Commission will use the findings from the police station visitation to develop (i) guidelines to improve the conditions of detention facilities in police stations across the country; (ii) develop Human Rights trainings for the police based on areas of challenges that have been identified. Our results we have fed into the Altus database and we await the results of the Africa Regional Winner from Altus.

We would like to use the opportunity to thank all those who made the police station visitation a reality. Altus an alliance of 6 NGOs and Academic Centres working in the area of public safety and security from a multicultural perspective. Altus started this initiative since 2004/5 and the impact is being felt by Police Organisations across the World. CLEEN Foundation a founding member of Altus has closely with us to ensure that National Human Rights Commission takes over the Police Station Visits, thereby ensuring it is institutionalised within the country. We also thank the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under its Chase program, the Justice for All Program for providing the funding support. Most importantly, the Nigeria Police Force and the Police Stations that opened their doors to the visitors – this is an indication of commitment to working closely with their communities. Finally, the Commission’s staff and the visitors who gave up their time to participate in this exercise, your contributions toward strengthening the accountability of the police is most appreciated and we hope that these results reflect your findings during the visitation.

We thank you all for taking out time out of your busy schedules to grace this press briefing, thank you all for coming.

Executive Secretary

National Human Rights Commission

Abuja