ABSTRACT
Criminal justice administration throughout the world has been tarnished with torture of persons either suspected of having committed an offence or for sundry other reasons. No country is spared the indictment of resorting to torture in one form or the other, Nigeria inclusive. In Nigeria, officers of the Nigerian Police Force have been particularly gruesome in their fight against crime. The proliferation of anti-crime operations by the federal police has resulted in extrajudicial executions, deaths in custody, acts of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in police detention centers throughout the country. General public concern over crime has increased the pressure on the police to arrest as many armed robbers as possible. But this outcry by the population has also been used by the Nigerian police to systematically justify human rights violations as being an unavoidable part of this fight against crime which ought not to be so. The Nigerian police play a very important role in criminal justice administration and therefore, it is expected to ensure respect for, and protection of the rights and freedom of individuals within their jurisdiction.
In the bid of curtailing various human rights abuses by security agents, various domestic and international legislations have been enacted, such as the Chapter 4 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, Anti-Torture Act 2017, Police Act 2020, Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, Universal Declaration of Human Right and African Charter on Human and People’s Right.
Utilizing the doctrinal research methodology, this research work critically examines all the legislations on the protection of human right abuses and how they can effectively be explored to prevent human right abuses by the members of the Nigerian Police Force.
