Imported User:
The Progressive Action Congress (PAC) on Tuesday condemned the use of torture as a way of extracting information from suspects.
The National Chairman, Chief Charles Nwodo, made the condemnation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Nwodo said torture had been the major way of getting information from suspects, especially in Africa.
He said that it had been proven that information extracted by torture could not be relied upon and such cases were mostly quashed in the law court.
`` To us in PAC, torture is a relative term, it is not only physical, but there are other ways like, psychological and economic torture which can be adopted instead of physical torture.
`` Hunger and poverty have tortured Nigerians to the extent that physical torture appears lighter,” he said
He regretted that corruption in the land, especially in the oil industry had created a serious torture and setback on the Nigerian economy.
He further said that bad roads, lack of drugs in the hospitals, ignorance due to lack of education, justice and transparency remained the major anti-dote to torture.
He urged the government not to take the fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution for granted, as that would guarantee peoples’ rights against unnecessary torture.
He also urged the Federal Government to embark on training and retraining of security agencies in order to perform their duties effectively.
`` Our human rights record has not been encouraging, especially with the law enforcement agencies, hence the need for regular training to update them to meet with global standards of handling cases.
`` The police cannot be our friend by mouth, but they should also march it by action, especially in the rural areas where majority of the citizens lack access to justice.
`` We join the world in condemning the use of torture, especially in the 21st century to extract information from suspects.”
He urged the National Assembly to enact a law that would take adequate care of those who formed the habit of torturing suspects in the name of extracting information from them. (NAN)
