The international human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HWR), has petitioned President Olusegun Obasanjo about what it called the continuous violations of the rights of individuals by government functionaries including the police.

In a letter dated July 3, which it addressed to the president and which was made available to Daily Trust, the group said although the task of controlling crime was daunting, the efforts of the police have been associated with systematic violations of human rights.

"We are aware that government officials and the Inspector General of Police have repeatedly announced reforms of the police force. However, to date, the approach to law enforcement still appears to be primarily confrontation and violence rather than prevention and respect for the rights of suspects", the letter, signed by HWR executive director, Kenneth Roth, said.

It decried what it described as extra-judicial executions by the police and alleged that the police use excessive force when responding to criminal activities and eruptions of communal violence. "Likewise, suspects who are arrested – often arbitrarily – face the prospect of torture followed by long periods of detention without trial".

The human rights group said that despite the police brutality, it was rare for the authorities to take action against those involved and referred to the recent police action against protesters during the labour-government face off over fuel price increase as a case in point.

"At the same time, police have assaulted and/or detained individuals without evidence of specific criminal wrongdoing; apparently merely for their membership of groups whose self-determination claims are perceived to be posing a threat to the government", it said.

The group reviewed the communal clashes that occurred in the country between 2000 and 2001 in Kaduna and Jos and wondered why government has refused to prosecute the perpetrators.

"Human Rights Watch does not believe that the Nigerian federal government has instigated or deliberately fuelled these conflicts in every case. However, we note a lack of concerted effective action to prevent them", the letter said.

It also accused Nigerian political parties of using youths to perpetrate electoral fraud in the general elections, saying "gangs of otherwise unemployed youths have been used by politicians of various parties, including the ruling PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) to help them achieve power by terrorising their opponents and intimidating voters during the elections".

Human Rights Watch then urged government to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of political violence in the country to avoid reoccurrence.