By John Talliday-

Human Rights Watch said in a statement published on Monday that 43 cases of “sexual abuse, including rape and exploitation”, had been documented by its researchers in July. In a shocking claim, a 17-year-old says she was raped by a policeman. The young teenager said the officer raped her after she rejected his demands for sex, and callously threatened to kill her when he discovered she was pregnant.

A 16-year-old who fled an attack on Baga, near Lake Chad said she was drugged and raped in May 2015 by a local militia member in charge of distributing aid in a camp. The women and girls raped were housed at seven camps in the North state of Maiduguri, the group stated.

The  Human rights group added that sexual abuses were carried out by camp leaders employed by authorities and members of local militias set up to help the military fight the insurgents.The allegations are depressing and an embarrassment to the Nigerian government.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was “worried and shocked” by the allegations, according to his spokesman Garba Shehu.

“President Buhari has instructed the inspector general of police and the state governors of the affected states to immediately commence investigations into the issue.”

Four of the victims were drugged and raped, whilst thirty-seven were forced into sex, after false promises of marriage and material and financial assistance. The news is reminiscent of a terrible culture of sexual abuse and sexual manipulation by Nigerian men in positions of authority.

One Nigerian woman from Maiduguri who did not want to be named told the eye of media.com by phone ”a lot of men here see power and position as an automatic right to have sex with vulnerable girls. They think because they have a title or money, you must sleep with them. It is a terrible problem in this country. Lecturers even blackmail students, I am talking about the girls, to sleep with them if they want to pass their exams. Some police do this too because they don’t think anything will happen to them. They have no morals a lot of these men”.

The disturbing allegations have raised alarm, putting pressure of the Nigerian president to identify the perpetrators and stamp out this deplorable practice. Efforts by the eye of media.com for comments by the defence ministry and the police proved futile. The Nigerian police are said to be not very honourable or reputable. Nigerian police are generally not well paid, leading to corruption practices, domestic violence at home, and compromised standards.

Reputable and honourable police officers exist in Nigeria but are few and far between in many states. The Nigerian government may need to invest in body cameras- in the same direction Britain and America are gradually moving towards.