- Title: Nigerian lawyers fight back against police brutality, graft
- Date: 13th August 2020
- Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (FILE - FEBRUARY 15, 2019) (REUTERS) POLICE OFFICERS GATHERED POLICE OFFICER WALKING WITH A GUN POLICE OFFICERS LOOKING ON LAGOS, NIGERIA (FILE - AUGUST 05, 2019) (REUTERS) POLICE MEN DRAGGING JOURNALIST ON THE FLOOR CIRCLE OF POLICEMEN SURRONDING JOURNALIST POLICE MEN SEARCHING MAN IN A BLACK MARIA
- Embargoed: 27th August 2020 09:44
- Keywords: Justice Law Lawyers Lockdown Police brutality
- Location: LAGOS AND ABUJA, NIGERIA
- City: LAGOS AND ABUJA, NIGERIA
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA008CR30ZTJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: When Divine Umukoro refused to pay police a bribe after breaking Lagos state's night-time curfew, she says they slapped her, slashed her car tyres and threatened violence.
A video of the incident went viral on Nigerian blogging sites, and Citizens' Gavel, a non-profit organisation that fights against police misconduct, stepped in, helping her to get her seized car back within three days.
The police have declined to comment on the incident.
"At first, I felt it was just a normal thing but when the whole thing started with the hitting, with the slapping of my face, pushing my friend. I felt so angry that I started saying can't I live in my own country. Can't I be free in my own country, "Umukoro, said of the July 11 incident, when she acknowledged she was out past a 10 pm curfew instituted to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Citizens' Gavel helped the 25-year-old get her seized car back within three days.
Isaac Aghi, Legal associate at Citizen Gavel handled Umukoro's case.
"It is a common thing for our police officers who see these citizens as being vulnerable as being unable to defend themselves so to speak whether legally or otherwise. It is a common thing for them to exercise that superiority to exert themselves on the citizens knowing that or thinking or believing that nothing can be done to them in that regard,." he told Reuters.
Citizens' Gavel, founded in 2017, and the Headfort Foundation, founded last year, aim to help marginalised Nigerians get fair treatment from the police and the courts.
The two NGOs have handled nearly 400 cases in total so far.
International organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have long accused Nigerian police of extortion, physical attacks and other abuses, charges they deny.
Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana said police were already accountable, pointing to a dedicated unit that investigates brutality accusations. He said 10 officers had been dismissed and more than 70 punished this year alone.
"We are very aware also that there are people that will fall short of the required standard while carrying out their duties, some will be too emotional at that moment and they move out beyond the legal guidelines and try to do something outside the law. What do we do to them which is why the NPF(Nigerian police force) has dedicated a unit responsible for that to investigate and to bring those police officers to justice." Elkana said.
But Oluyemi Orija, chief executive of the Headfort Foundation, said that without help, poor clients can spend months in jail for offences such as driving without a licence because they cannot afford to pay bail or bribe the police. They can also be coerced to confess to crimes they did not commit.
"When you see young people maybe for whatever reason they jump traffic or traffic light, very little, little things like that, you drive without drivers license, those things can land poor people in jail for months but a rich person will walk into the police station, pay them and get away with it, rich people will even do worse things, pay to the police and get away with it but you know when you are poor its like, being poor is being a criminal something like that, if you are poor then you are a criminal in Nigeria." said Orija, a lawyer.
Orija and her team of all-women lawyers braze up at court rooms defending people who they believe have been unlawfully incarcerated and are unable to afford litigation.
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