Government warned over extra-judicial killings

A UN human rights expert has urged Nigeria to stop extra-judicial killings by security forces in the country. In a preliminary report at the end of a 12-day visit to Nigeria, UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard said the perpetrators of such inhuman acts should face justice. 'Every death or serious injury in police custody, and every alleged extrajudicial execution, ought to be adequately and impartially investigated by an independent body,' the UN top official told a news conference in Abuja. A report on the News24 site notes that she said officers suspected of being responsible for the killings should be suspended pending investigation, while those implicated should be dismissed and brought before a civilian court. 'The government should condemn publicly all extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, including of suspected armed robbers, and announce that perpetrators will be brought to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to death penalty,' she said. The brutal crackdown on the pro-Iranian Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria and its leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and the Biafran separatist group IPOB has also been condemned.