CURBING INSECURITY IN NIGERIA AND THE ANTI-TORTURE ACT: A MORAL REVISITING

Abstract

The act of torture or enhanced interrogation has been criminalized by many countries and world’s charters on human reights. Nigeria domesticated this law in her legislation with the signing of the anti-torture bill into law by President Buhari in 2017. Despite the criminalization of the act of torture in Nigeria, Amnesty International has repeatedly reported cases of torture suspects among the law enforcements agencies, in the bid to obtain confessional statements or to obtain vital information that could aid in the investigative proceedings. This points to a serious problem in the implementation of law, even as the country appears engulfed in an unprecedented array of criminalities and banditry. Using the principles of Situation Ethics, this paper undertakes an ethical evaluation of the anti-torture act vis-à-vis the fight against insecurity in the country. The paper submits that, in the face of high rate of crime in Nigeria today, there may be a need for exceptions in the administration of anti-torture act. The paper adopts the hermeneutical and analytic methods of philosophical research.