US report lists rights issues in Nigeria

The United States 2017 human rights report listed extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary detentions; torture, particularly in detention facilities, including sexual exploitation and abuse, as most significant human rights issues in Nigeria.

The report, released by the US Department of State, also recorded as human rights abuses in Nigeria the use of children by some security elements, looting, and destruction of property; civilian detentions in military facilities, often based on flimsy evidence; and denial of fair public trial.

Other rights issues, according to the report, included executive influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; lack of accountability in cases involving violence against women and children, trafficking in persons; and forced and bonded labour.

It said, “The government took steps to investigate alleged abuses but fewer steps to prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government.

“Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government. The government did not adequately investigate or prosecute most of the major outstanding allegations of human rights violations by the security forces or the majority of cases of police or military extortion or other abuse of power.”

On Shiites-Military clashes in 2015 which claimed lives of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) members, the report said, “As of November, however, there was no indication that authorities had held any members of the Nigeria Army accountable for the events in Zaria.”