1. Crime Prevention and Justice Reform
for Effective Armed Violence Reduction:
Balancing the Role of Civil Society
Presentation by Innocent Chukwuma
At the second Ministerial Conference on Geneva Declaration on
Armed Violence and Development, October 31 – November 1, 2011
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2. Crime Prevention Initiatives undertaken in Lagos
Communica Trust Fund
tion and for safety
emergency and
response security
Community
dialogue Urban
and renewal
partnership
City
Job
transport
Creation
system
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3. Official Statistics and Surveys Reports on Violent Crime
in Lagos
Homicide recorded by police Robbery recorded by police
230 235
250 250
200 175 165 200
150 150
100 100 66
50
50 50
0 0
Mar '07 - Feb '08 March '08 - Feb '09 March '09 - Feb '10 March '07 - Feb '08 March '08 - Feb' 09 March '09 - Feb' 10
Homicide Robbery
0.70% 3%
0.60% 3% 3%
0.50% 0.60%
2%
0.40% 2%
2%
0.30%
1%
0.20% 0.30%
1%
0.10%
0%
0.00%
2007 2009
2007 2009
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4. Adversarial Relationship Between Police and
Doctors
Contest
• Section 4(2) of Nigerian Robbery and Firearms Act, 1990, obliges any person, hospital or
clinic that admits, treats, or administers any drug to any person suspected of having
bullet wounds to immediately report the matter to the police. Failure to do so is an
offense punishable by 5 years imprisonment and closure of affected hospital or clinic.
Impact
• Police harassment of doctors in private hospitals that provide emergency care to victims
of gun violence.
• Delays and refusal of hospitals (especially private ones) to provide emergency
treatment and care to victims of gun violence until police report is obtained by family
members/friends, which is a major contributor to high mortality rate in gun violence in
Nigeria.
Intervention by CLEEN Foundation
• Facilitation of meeting between Nigeria medical association and the Police in
Lagos, which led to a joint declaration against the practice and establishment of
hotlines for reporting infractions.
• Bill in parliament to oblige doctors to provide emergency treatment to provide
emergency care to trauma victims without police interference.
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5. Draconian laws against Gun violence may be
counter productive
Contest
• Section 2(2) of Robbery and Firearms Act, 1990, states that if any offender is armed
with any firearms or any offensive weapon or is in company with any other person so
armed ... the offender shall upon conviction .. Be sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Section 7(1) empowers police officers to arrest without warrant any person reasonably
suspected of having committed robbery or about to commit robbery to use such
force, including the use of firearms, as may be reasonably necessary to effect the arrest
or prevent an escape.
Impact
• Anecdotal evidence suggest that the use of lethal force in robbery is becoming a
permanent feature of Nigerian society partly arguable as a result the fact that the
Robbery and Firearms Act does not give room for robbery suspects to negotiate the
severity of punishment they would get if caught because mere possession of firearms in
robbery operation is as capital an offense as using it under the Act.
Intervention
• It is necessary to conduct research in Nigeria and other developing countries with
similar laws to determine the correlation between such draconian anti-robbery laws
and increasing use of lethal force in robberies.
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