By Martin Cole-
The UK government is under pressure to suspend the funding and training of security forces in Nigeria, where protests against a notorious police unit were brutally suppressed last month.
Kate Osamor, the MP for Edmonton, expressed serious concerns about a lack of oversight of the UK’s role, especially in relation to the special anti-robbery squad (Sars), disbanded in October after allegations of killings and abuse.
After a recent investigation by CNN exposed brutal killings by Nigerian soldiers against peaceful civilians, Westminster is expected to take action in suspending its training of Nigerian security forces. An insider in Amnesty International anonymously told The Eye Of Media.Com that ”suspension is not good enough, all financial support for training should be terminated’. These people are acting like callous animals”.
A BBC representative in Nigeria, told this publication by phone: ” All financial support for the Nigerian police force should cease until the Nigerian government can be held accountable for its barbaric slaughter of human beings. A thorough investigation must be seen to occur, with those held responsible brought to justice. There also needs to be some assurance that the reckless disregard for human life by the Nigerian police is brought to an end.
The Nigerian army have denied responsibility, dismissing reports of fatalities and claiming footage showing soldiers at the scene was manipulated.
Labour is also calling for “independent investigations into the allegations against Sars units, as well as military, security and policing forces responsible for attacks on protesters, that could lead to targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against responsible individuals”, Osamor tweeted on Tuesday.
At a debate in parliament on Monday night, MPs pressed the government to adopt “individualised sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes” against individuals accused of abuses.
Strategic Assistance
After initially stating that Sars officers had not received UK support, the UK minister for Africa, James Duddridge, said the unit had received “strategic assistance” and training alongside personnel from the wider Nigerian police force as part of a programme that ran from 2016 to March this year.
Osamor, who heads the Commons all-party parliamentary group on Nigeria, said: “The government now needs to come clean and explain how and why that funding took place in the first place. They owe it to the many who have been killed by Sars units to explain who made the decision to fund those units and why.”
There were “serious concerns about the level of oversight attached to government funding in this area”, she added. “Amnesty International and several other international human rights organisations have been very clear that Sars have been directly involved in extrajudicial killings, torture and corruption.
The UK government either knew that and decided it would fund Sars anyway or didn’t know where UK funding was going.”
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “It is important that the police in Nigeria respect human rights. We have been working with Nigeria to support reforms to ensure this happens”.
A judicial panel has been set up to in Lagos to investigate the action by security forces during the October protests, but there is minimal faith in the investigation, given the lack of prosecutions in Nigeria. Statements by Nigerian ministers defending security personnel accused of abuses and discrediting
Chi Onwurah, who heads the APPG for Africa, said the UK should press authorities to fully investigate recent abuses. “We need clear, honest, verifiable messages from the Nigerian authorities and a credible investigation to build public trust.
“The enduring influence and consequences of the colonial period on Nigerian institutions, including the police, does give the UK a responsibility to do all we can to support the Nigerian people in reforming those institutions,” she said.
Reform
Reform can only work where there is accountability and responsibility, none of which appears to be the case with the Nigerian police. Instances of outright killings like those exposed by CNN under normal circumstances in a democratic society should lead to murder trials.
The killings shown to the whole world is more blatant than the murder of Khashoggi because at least that brutal killing happened behind closed doors and there had been a long running feud between him and the Saudi government.
Protesters demonstrating peacefully and killed in full view of the public and a rolling camera would be a shocking disgrace if the world sat quiet and the Uk government were to continue its funding before a responsible framework of accountability is put in place.