nigeria: torture report seized

PRESS RELEASE

Geneva, October 14th, 2002

Hope detained! A report on the human rights situation in Nigeria is
blocked at the country's customs, while its contributors are being
harassed

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against
Torture (OMCT), the world's largest coalition of non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) engaged in the fight against torture, would like
to express its deep concern about the fact that copies of a report
published by OMCT and Nigerian NGO the Centre for Law Enforcement
Education (CLEEN), entitled "Hope betrayed? A Report on Impunity and
State-Sponsored Violence in Nigeria," based on the input of some 60
local NGOs, have been seized by the customs office in Lagos.
Furthermore, a researcher and two persons who collaborated in
drafting the report are reportedly being subjected to harassment by
Security Services agents.

According to the information received, over 2000 copies of the report
that were sent by OMCT to CLEEN for distribution in Nigeria have been
impounded at the customs office in Lagos, due to alleged political
undertones of a subversive nature within the report's content. The
report was launched publicly in Lagos on August 26th, 2002, and OMCT
is surprised by the sudden change of mood by the authorities towards
this publication and those who participated in producing it.

Two of the co-authors of a chapter on the so-called "Benue Killings" -
in which the Nigerian Army massacred a large number of civilians in
response to the abduction and killing of soldiers during inter-ethnic
clashes between the Tiv and Junkun groups in the Benue Valley - are
being harassed by the authorities, who have called upon them to
report immediately to the Department of State Security Services (SSS)
in Abuja. OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and
psychological integrity of these two persons, Miss Isioma Ojugbana
and Miss Ijeoma Nwachukwu, who are both members of the Civil
Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Lagos, and fears that they may be
arbitrarily detained and risk being subjected to ill-treatment if
they present themselves to the SSS.

On Friday October 4th, 2002, CLO's offices were reportedly visited by
a person known only as Mohammed, who invited the afore-mentioned
persons to attend the SSS immediately. After his visit, CLO
reportedly received phone calls later on the same day and on Tuesday
October 8th, demanding that they present themselves unfailingly on
October 8th. It is reported that the Director of the SSS has also
phoned CLO and ordered them in a threatening manner to immediately
come to his offices in Abuja. Miss
Isioma Ojugbana and Miss Ijeoma Nwachukwu have asked for an official
request to be submitted to them in writing, including the reasons for
which they are being invited, in
compliance with standard procedures, rather than the oral demands
that they have received so far, at which time they would comply with
the request. They still await this
official written request and are currently living in fear.

Furthermore, it has been reported that Idris Bawa, one of the
researchers for the National Human Rights Commission, has been
invited to the SSS and questioned in
relation with this affair.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned by the
fact that the authorities are attempting to block the dissemination
of this report, which represents an
important milestone in the collaboration of Nigerian NGOs and the
monitoring of the human rights situation in the country, and calls
upon them to immediately enable these
reports to be delivered to their intended destination. OMCT is also
gravely concerned about the SSS' use of threats and harassment
against members of civil society and fears that such behaviour may
augur a departure from recent improvements in Nigeria towards a time
in which civil society once again becomes the target of repression,
in violation of the rights to the freedoms of association, opinion
and speech. OMCT calls upon the Nigerian authorities to immediately
halt all forms of repression, threats and harassment against the
persons who took part in the production of this report and, more
generally, civil society as a whole.

Contact: Michael Anthony, Tel: 00 41 22 809 49 39, e-mail:
[email protected]
Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT)
8 rue du Vieux-Billard
Case postale 21
CH-1211 Geneve 8
Suisse/Switzerland
Tel. : 0041 22 809 49 39
Fax : 0041 22 809 49 29
E-mail : [email protected]
http://www.omct.org