Chairman, Centre for Constitutionalism and Demilitarisation, Dr. Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, has said the police are the worst violators of human rights in the country.
Odion-Akhaine stated this while presenting a book, 2012: State of Human Rights in Nigeria.
He said the survey gauging Nigerians' understanding of human rights as well as their perception on rights violation indicated that the police topped the list of violators.
Odion-Akhaine, who urged the government to make use of the report, said it would go a long way in addressing the problem of rights abuses and violation in the country.
He said, "The government appears to be doing enough to protect the rights of the citizens. Nevertheless, the police are rated as the worst violator of human rights by 2,581 respondents representing 66 per cent of the total number of respondents.
"The report has repercussion for policy. Nigerian state actors/institutions such as the police, legislators and the presidency should make use of the report to shape policy towards addressing the sundry social problems facing the country."
He said the respondents believed that adherence to the rule of law and independence of judiciary, good leadership, provision of employment and social safety nets, were panacea for growth and development.
He, therefore, recommended that government should always punish offenders to act as deterrent to others, saying good parenting could help to improve the state of human rights in the country.
Describing the level of violation in the last one year as alarming, he said, Nigerians right to life was severally violated.
Odion-Akhaine said, "Like our previous report, the 2012 report is divided into three sections. The first part is the introduction where we painted the context of violation, nature of violations and the limitations of the report.
"The context of violation has not changed. The state retained its rentier character. Oil receipts nurtured large scale corruption. This was underlined by the oil subsidy scam in which aboutN1.7tn was misappropriated by oil companies."
Odion-Akhaine said the protest against the ill-advised increase in the pump price of fuel from N65 to N141 and the response of the state ensured that the year started on a bloody note.
He said the insecurity of life was dominant in Abuja, stressing that 50 per cent of cases of violations recorded were violations of the rights to the lives of residents.
