against the persons who made the confession. Serious consideration should be given to video and audio taping of interrogations, including of all persons present confessions. The Special Rapporteur encountered cases in which the courts did not take into account allegations of torture when issuing their verdicts. court, a trial within a trial is held, but according to information received, the jury generally decide in favour of the police officer. (l) All allegations of torture and ill-treatment should be promptly and thoroughly investigated by an independent authority with no connection to the authority investigating or prosecuting the case against the alleged victim Although Nigeria has a number of ways to redress instances of police misconduct, including police internal review, these do not function in practice. Non-governmental sources: The majority of investigations or disciplinary measures against police officers are conducted internally within the Nigerian Police Force, often informally within a particular station. Attempts to register complaints could be met with intimidation, or investigations lack independence as they could be conducted by the police. No information was provided by the Government on evidence of successful criminal prosecutions of perpetrators of torture, payment of compensation, or statistics on disciplinary sanctions meted out to officers. Although there are a number of bodies that can accept complaints, in reality perpetrators operate in a culture of impunity. The Government could not provide evidence of successful criminal prosecutions of perpetrators of torture or statistics on disciplinary Non-governmental sources: Concerns remain about the culture of impunity within police institutions. NGOs receive large numbers of complaints related to torture by the police, and concerns remain about the entrenched patterns of extortion, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment, but the government has made no significant effort to hold members of the security forces accountable for these A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 137 (m) Any public official found responsible for abuse or torture in this report, either directly involved in torture or ill-treatment, as well as implicated in colluding in torture or ignoring evidence, should be immediately suspended from duty, and prosecuted. The The 2008 Presidential Committee recommended that “A Public Complaints Unit should be established under the Police Affairs Office in the Presidency to receive and deal with representations against the Police with powers to investigate and recommend redress and other forms of disciplinary action in all proven cases of neglect, unnecessary use of force, injury, corruption or misconduct.” The Federal Government accepted this recommendation in its whitepaper, and gave the Ministry of Police Affairs the mandate to implement it. However, this is not yet in place.