Nigerian Police Demanded Sexual Favors From Widows of Colleagues

A study by the Nigerian-based Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has found that the country’s police force has demanded “kickbacks” and “sexual favors” from police widows whose husbands were killed fighting Boko Haram.

CITAD’s study includes interviews with nine widows, none of whom had received all of the benefits that they are entitled to. In addition, CITAD also found a pattern of bribery and sexual coercion.

Via All Africa:

The study revealed that before any of the pension entitlements were awarded, the officer responsible for issuing the payments asked each widow for a bribe of between US$90 and US$190. “Those who could not afford such [an] amount, were asked to meet the officer-in-charge of issuing the cheques at a hotel”, the study noted, where he demanded sex. The officer has since been dismissed.

[…]

“All the wives responded that life has not been easy … since their husbands died, leaving them with the burden of taking care of the children alone,” and were plagued by unsympathetic in-laws, the study said. The inspector general of police had made one donation of food items, but although some of the women had asked to be employed as cleaners, nothing more was forthcoming from the police command.

“The Nigerian Police Force doesn’t care about their own,” the study’s author, Fatima Ibrahim, said. “The men have no incentive to fight [Boko Haram] because they know if they are killed, then their families are in trouble.”