*Obinna Jonah is reported to have died while in a police detention facility
*Gambo Gadzama admits to ‘scaring’ suspects
*According to Nigerian laws, torture is deemed committed when an act by which pain and suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person
On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, a member of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Gambo Gadzama, told an #EndSARS panel that torture is different from intimidation. The latter, an attempt to scare suspects to extract the truth.
The panel was set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after the #EndSARS protest against police brutality that ended with a shooting at the Lekki toll gate.
The NPF Inspector was giving a testimony concerning a case of the alleged killing of a Nigerian citizen, Obinna Jonah, in a police detention facility in Abuja in January 2020.
Gambo appeared as a defence witness saying Jonah was never tortured.
“Nobody tortured anybody. We don’t torture suspects, we only scare them with words like ‘I will beat you’ so they can confess, Gambo told the panel.
Background
The victim’s brother, Okechukwu Jonah, petitioned the panel alleging that the deceased, Obinna, was extra-judicially killed by the police in 2020. He said Obinna’s body has yet been handed to the family for proper burial since he was killed.
This was why the panel summoned Gambo, alongside other police officers, named in the case to appear to tell their side of the story.
Gambo’s defence
Gambo Gadzama told the panel that Obinna was arrested as a member of an armed robbery and cult gang on January 29, 2020, after the leader of the gang, Chikazor, confessed and named 13 persons whom he claimed were members of the gang.
The Police Inspector said Obinna was ill at the time and his illness worsened while in detention. He claimed that Obinna was rushed to the Area 1 police clinic when he slumped.
Gambo said Obinna was confirmed dead on arrival at the clinic and his body was deposited at the Wuse General Hospital mortuary. But, he claimed not to know if the body was still at the mortuary.
He added that autopsy could not be done because Obinna’s relatives could not be tracked.
He then said none of the 14 arrested were tortured.
“Obinna was never tortured because he admitted to the allegations against him. Nobody tortured any of them.”
In corroboration, a deputy superintendent of police, Adebayo Jogbo-Jogbo, told the panel Obinna slumped and was taken to the hospital January 31, 2020.
In deference to Gambo’s testimony, Adebayo said Obinna was rejected at the hospital because this coincided with the pandemic rush, when hospital beds were filled up.
The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was recorded February 27, 2020. And, the rush only start until March 2020.
Meanwhile, a suspect arrested with Obinna had mentioned in December 2021 that he witnessed the torturing of the deceased before he slumped and died.
What is Torture?
According to Amnesty International, “Torture is when somebody in an official capacity inflicts severe mental or physical pain or suffering on somebody else for a specific purpose. Sometimes authorities torture a person to extract a confession for a crime, or to get information from them. Sometimes torture is simply used as a punishment that spreads fear in society.
In article 1 of the UN Declaration against Torture (the first instrument to provide a definition of torture): 1. For the purpose of this Declaration, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating him or other persons. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions to the extent consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. 2. Torture constitutes an aggravated and deliberate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The Nigerian Anti-Torture Act 2017 was passed by the 8th National Assembly and signed into law by President Mohammadu Buhari on December 29, 2017.
Section 2 titled ‘Acts of Torture’ defines what amounts to torture. It states that;
‘torture is deemed committed when an act by which pain and suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person to –
(a) obtain information or confession from him or a third person;
(b) punish him for an act he or a third person has committed or suspected of having committed;
or (c) intimidate or coerce him or third person for any reason based on discrimination of any kind’.
It goes on to suggest Torture does not include pain or suffering in compliance with lawful sanctions. It then lists what constitutes torture, some examples in the Act include:
- Systematic beatings, head-banging, punching, kicking, striking with rifle butts and jumping on the stomach
- Food deprivation or forcible feeding with spoiled food, animal or human excreta or other food not normally eaten,
- Electric shocks
- Cigarette burning, burning by electric heated rods, hot oil, acid, by the rubbing of pepper or other chemical substances on mucous membranes, or acids or spices directly on the wounds
- The submersion of head in water or water polluted with excrement urine, vomit or blood
- Blindfolding
- Threatening a person or such persons related or known to him with bodily harm, execution or other wrongful acts,
- Confinement in solitary cells put up in public places
- Confinement in solitary cells against their will or without prejudice to their security
- Prolonged interrogation to deny normal length of sleep or rest
- Causing unscheduled transfer of a person from one place to another, creating the belief that he shall be summarily executed etc.
Section 3 titled ‘No justification for torture’ states that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.
Bottomline
Gambo Gadzama’s actions, whether scare or more extreme, torture, cannot be justified. And, it will do the justice system good to make Gambo answer for his deeds.
