20100817
reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) - Corruption in the Nigerian police force, from armed officers extorting money at checkpoints to top officials embezzling public funds, has led to the beating and even killing of innocent civilians, a rights group said.

Institutionalised extortion, lack of political will for reform and impunity mean Nigerians are more likely to encounter police threatening them and demanding bribes than enforcing law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 102-page report.

"The long-term failure of the Nigerian authorities to address police bribery, extortion, and wholesale embezzlement threatens the basic rights of all Nigerians," said Corinne Dufka, senior HRW West Africa researcher.

In major cities across Africa's most populous nation, including the commercial hub Lagos and capital Abuja, armed police set up checkpoints every evening ostensibly to control high levels of crime, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

But the checkpoints are in reality tolls at which officers attempt to force motorists to pay money -- sometimes grinning, Kalashnikov in hand, and asking "anything for the boys?" but frequently becoming more aggressive.

"Extortion-related confrontations between the police and motorists often escalate into more serious abuses," the report, based on interviews with more than 145 victims, said.

"The evidence suggests that police officers have on numerous occasions severely beaten, sexually assaulted, or shot to death ordinary citizens who failed to pay bribes demanded."

Nigerian police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said the report contained "largely embellished innuendos".