Nigeria’s Military torture chambers; hell fire – Amnesty Int’l

By Evelyn Okakwu

A recent report by the Amnesty international has accused Nigeria’s military authority of habouring torture chambers symbolic of hell fire.

Addressing a team of Journalist yesterday while delivering the latest report by Amnesty international, with the team; “Welcome to hell fire torture and other ill treatments in Nigeria” the Senior Director of Research, Nicola Duckworth, said a minimum of 5000 Nigerians have been arrested since the military operations began against the Boko Haram Terrorist group in 2009, adding that several survivors have had terrible stories from their accounts in military torture centers across the country, some of them as young as 12.

Speaking at the event, the agency’s Africa research and advocacy director, Netsanet Belay stated that; “The country’s parliament must immediately take this long overdue step and pass a law criminalizing torture. There is no excuse for further delay.”

Speaking also at the event, a survivor of the torture Mr Justin Nwankwo said he was taken away from the Upper room hotel in Eastern Nigeria where he worked as a manger, after the police came in one fateful morning and searched the hotel thoroughly.

According to him, they headed to particular room 102; two decayed human skulls were found.” So they began torturing about 13 of us immediately. I was stripped naked at the hotel. We ended in up in the special anti-robbery squad in Anambara known as the Awkuzu SARS. I was thrown inside a cell. I noticed writing on the wall. “Welcome to hell fire”.

“They used a rope to tie my neck and with each officer standing on both sides they drew the rope till they found that a mark had been created on my neck, so they used a cloth round my neck and continued with the tortures. He said several tortures were meted on him, till he complied to sign a blank document.

The police has however describe the report by the Amnesty International as baseless