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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said that only 10 police stations out of 369 assessed in 21 state police commands performed credibly under five areas of key indicators.
The findings of a research, which was jointly conducted by the commission and Altus Global Alliance, were released yesterday.
The research involved visits and inspection of police stations across the six geopolitical zones of the country and it was conducted between November 18 and 23, 2013.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, disclosed that out of 369 police stations assessed in 21 state police commands, only 10 performed credibly under five areas of key indicators.
He said that the team of inspectors assessed each police station in five key areas, namely: Community orientation, physical conditions, equal treatment of members of the public, transparency and accountability and detention conditions.
According to the report, Karu police station, Abuja, was adjudged the best having polled 100 per cent in the five indicator areas.
Ilupeju and Ikoyi police stations in Lagos emerged second and third respectively, while Adatan police station in Ogun, Victoria Island in Lagos and New Heaven police station Enugu came fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Badagry police station, Lagos, and Life Camp, Abuja, tied in 7th position, while Ijanikin police station, Lagos, was placed eighth.
Airport Command, Uyo, and Trade Fair police station, Lagos, were adjudged as the ninth best stations, while Birnin Kudu police station Jigawa took the 10th position.
Angwe said the visitation was conducted in accordance with the commission’s mandate as stated in Section 6 (1) (d) of NHRC (Amendment) Act.
He added that the NHRC Act empowers the commission to visit prisons, police cells and other places of detention in order to ascertain the conditions thereof and make recommendations to the appropriate authorities.
He said the commission deployed 1,115 persons comprising its staff, local community and groups to conduct the visits.
The commands inspected included Abia, Abuja-FCT, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara States.
He said the commission would use the findings from the visitation to develop guidelines to improve the conditions of detention facilities in police stations in the country, and develop human rights trainings for the police based on areas of challenges that have been identified.
When contacted, the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, said he could not comment on the findings in the report until he had seen a copy.
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