Abuja, 19 Sep - (ANA) - Torture has become such an integral part of policing in Nigeria that many stations have an informal torture officer, Amnesty International says. Both the military and police use a wide range of torture methods including beatings, nail and teeth extractions and other sexual violence, it says. One woman accused of theft in Lagos said she was sexually assaulted, and had tear gas sprayed into her vagina. Nigeria's police told the BBC the force had a "zero tolerance for torture". "It may happen and when it does happen it is appropriately dealt with," police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told the BBC Hausa service. "Every officer in Nigerian police has a duty post - there is no duty post for torture," he said. "If somebody's tortured let him please report to the next higher authority and then action will be taken."

Entitled Welcome to Hell Fire, the Amnesty report says people are often detained in large dragnet operations and tortured as punishment, to extort money or to extract "confessions" as a way to solve cases. The use of torture is particularly extreme in the north-east in the war against Boko Haram Islamist militants, Amnesty says. The UK-based rights group says between 5,000 and 10,000 people have been arrested there since 2009, and executions in overcrowded detention facilities are common. A teenage boy was among 50 people arrested by the army in Pokiskum in Yobe state last year on suspicion of being a member of the Boko Haram. At the time he was 15 years old and spent three weeks in custody in Damaturu and said he was beaten continuously with gun butts, batons and machetes. (ANA)

FA/ANA/19 September 2014---------