Stakeholder of prisoners’rehabilitation in Nigeria have reiterated calls for an end to torture of individuals in and the prosecution of torture perpetrators.

Executive Director, PRAWA, Dr Uju Agomoh made the call duriing a Three-Day Training and Capacity Building on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims organised by PRAWA in partnership with the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and the Independent Forensics Expert Group, Monday in Abuja.

Agomoh said government at all levels must ensure the rehabilitation of torture victims and the prosecution of perpetrators in line with the Istanbul Protocol on the Documentation and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims

According to her, PRAWA had been pushing for torture victims to be heard, adding that the capacity building was to build strategies and have a core group to drive the campaign.

The executive director said records of proper investigation of torture and treatment of victims were necessary in building concrete evidence for prosecution of perpetrators.
“Basically, we have to keep pushing as we have lawyers in this training aside medical practitioners.

“So, it is a question of ensuring that there is a strong coordination and collaboration between legal profession, psychologists, and medical doctors and of course the lawyers in the paralegal.

“Imagine having the real fact, so that once you go to court, you are ready to roll.

“I think it is wrong not to prosecute all the perpetrators, once you don’t do that, it is like accepting impunity, it will continue like that.
“We are also pushing that everyone charged for such offence should be duly prosecuted, they should also be sanctioned when found guilty, because that is really the key thing,” she said.

Agomoh adds that the training targets medical and legal practitioners and offers the participants necessary skills and competency to properly document cases of torture in the country. in line with Medico-Legal documentation and rehabilitation of torture victims.
Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, said there was need to recognise that torture victims require medical and psycho-social support.

She said it is not enough to punish perpetrators of torture without providing necessary support for the victims.

“This is because they need to also seek legal remedy for all they have been through. This is timely at a time when we are reviewing our anti-torture legislation and the policy framework.

“Government is doing a lot at least to reduce it to barest minimum.”
She therefore said that the training would help to develop a framework for providing medical, psycho-social and legal support to victims of torture.

Solicitor-general also pointed that the issue of torture reduction had been infused into the training manual of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).

“We are working on strategic engagement like stakeholders workshops, training and retraining to ensure that they understand that having coercive force doesn’t give you the power to do as you like.
“Nigeria like other countries in the global community has obligations to ensure that citizens are free from torture in line with the commitments we have made and in line with the Constitutions as well.

“Obviously, there will also be recalcitrant law enforcement agencies but I think that once punitive measures are handed out, this will bring the incidence to the barest minimum,” she added.

A torture victim, Mrs Oluwafunsho Adeniyi, tasked the National Assembly on review of existing laws to provide stringent punishment for perpetrators of torture and their collaborators.
“Government agencies that have the capabilities to address this torture issue should do more and be accessible to ordinary persons like me.

“As a victim of torture, I don’t know if there is anyone stopping torture from being done to people.

“I had an issue with my ex-husband regarding the custody of our children, he went to report and claim that I am a kidnapper, and that I kidnapped our own children.
“He has been using the Police to torture me and my family,” she added.

In her view, if adequate sanctions are provided, those who believe that torture is normal would come to their senses.