No going back in our determination to expose atrocities by Nigerian police

Fear is a weapon the bad guys use to put everybody to silence. Most Nigerians understand that many police officers in the Nigerian police force have gone rogue. But the situation is actually worse. There are many deadly criminals in the police force. They are the kidnappers. They are the armed robbers. They are the assassins. They put fear in you and control you by that.

Abattoir secret prison in Abuja is just one of the evil machinations of the police. Even the IG may not understand all that is going on in Abattoir. We have heard of cases where the policemen would hide some Abattoir inmates when they knew the IGP was visiting. In other words, it is not only the judges they hide inmates from. They have done it to an IGP and many external visitors like human rights groups and Red Cross. How do they hide hundreds of people?

We know that many people would wonder: How can they hide so many people? This is how they do it:  The area known as Abattoir is a large area located on a rocky landspace. There is no drive-through or access. It is like going into a hill that you cannot drive through and you have to exit through the same gate you came in through. When you enter the area called abattoir, you will see only the offices toward the front left. Deep in the hill behind the offices, toward the right, is a monstrous building. You can’t see anything from outside looking in. That is the main Abattoir detention cell. That cell contains about 1000 detainees at any given time. Nobody sees those detainees, except the police and few privileged people. It is a highly secure and highly controlled facility. Nobody goes to that building unless you are a detainee being led to the cell or you are one of the officers that work there.

There are many other buildings and spaces hidden behind the offices. Those are not accessible to visitors either. Whenever a human right group comes to see things in Abattoir, normally they would come on a schedule. They normally would arrive by 10am to 12noon. Early that morning, the police would come to Abattoir cell and march all physically able detainees to the buildings behind the offices to the left. Those who are too weak to walk would be carried by other inmates. These would be kept in that place until the visitors had left.

Of course, they would not take every detainee out of the cell. Otherwise, that would look suspicious. They will leave some inmates, about 50, usually those that are physically able and not showing any visible torture injuries and those who have been in detention for only a few weeks. Those are the ones the visitors will meet. Even at that, the police will warn those detainees not to say anything outside what they are told to say. The police will be with the visitors each time they are talking to a detainee. If an inmate would try to tip the visitors off, that will be the end of his life. We heard of a detainee who dared to reveal the truth about his case. The detainee had been in detention for more than one year. The officer handling his case told him to say he had been in detention for only two weeks. But when the visitors asked him, he told them he had been in detention for 14 months. The visitors screamed and requested that the man be freed or charged to court. Because of his case, the visitors scheduled to come back after one month. When they came back and asked, they were told that the man had been released as they requested. They left satisfied. Meanwhile, the man was killed for not doing as he was told.

Abattoir is certainly not the only such secret prison or killing ground used by the Nigerian police. DPA knows there are more. But Nigerians must be aware of the existence of such places. Human civilization has gone beyond the point where we would keep quiet out of fear. DPA will do whatever is possible to expose Abattoir and other secret prisons. We have videos and pictures of Abattoir. We have made these pictures available to critical individuals within and outside Nigeria. We made them part of our petitions to international agencies and the diplomatic community and foreign news agencies.

DPA just has to expose Abattoir in order to stop the atrocities. You will recall that in October of 2018, when we first tried to expose Abattoir, Mr. Bala Ciroma, (Commissioner of Police for Abuja) and Mr. Jimoh Moshood (then the Police PRO) looked the world in the yes and denied the existence of Abattoir, and they falsely accused DPA Founder of being a criminal. Now, let the world know the role of these police officers in the human slaughter that has occurred in Abattoir.

Having our Founder in detention is not enough to stop DPA. Indeed, DPA operations do not depend on the Founder. We can operate from our overseas locations once we have gathered the evidence in Nigeria.