Moses Akatugba

TORTURED, BEATEN AND SENTENCED TO DEATH

Moses Akatugba was sixteen years old when he was arrested under suspicion of armed robbery in November 2005. Soldiers shot him in the hand and beat him on the head and back before taking him to the police station. Moses then spent more than three months in police detention, where he says that police officers repeatedly beat him with machetes and batons. He told Amnesty that they tied and hung him up for several hours, and then used pliers to pull out his toe and fingernails. Finally, Moses was forced to sign two pre-written confessions.

Last year, Moses Akatugba was sentenced to death for armed robbery, after eight years awaiting trial in prison. The sentence was based only on his forced confession and the testimony of the robbery victim, which was full of contradictions.

Moses was just a boy when he was arrested. His mother was never even informed of his arrest – she only found out the next day through a woman selling wares on the street. Under international law, he never should have been sentenced to death, as he was a child at the time of the crime.

The criminal justice system in Nigeria is weak, blighted by corruption and human rights violations. The use of torture is widespread and widely reported in Nigeria but most of the cases of torture by the security forces remain largely un-investigated.