A/HRC/7/3/Add.4 page 13 speaking with various detainees, corroborated by forensic medical evidence, in facilities visited in different parts of the country and obtained within the span of a one-week mission, speaks volumes. 37. Despite the existence of safeguards for arrest and detention (paras. 18-28 above), they are effectively meaningless because they are regularly ignored. Torture was frequently cited to the Special Rapporteur as being used for the purpose of extracting money, obtaining confessions or further information in relation to alleged crimes. Methods of torture included: flogging with whips; beating with batons, cables, bamboo sticks, and machetes; shooting suspects in the foot; threatening a suspect with death and then shooting him with powder cartridges; suspension from the ceiling or metal rods in various positions; and being denied food, water and medical treatment. 38. Suggestions by officials that “torture” is only isolated or merely amounts to rough handling of suspects, are contradicted by evidence the Special Rapporteur found of dedicated rooms in CIDs for torture and equipment used for such purposes, and by the testimony from numerous detainees. 39. The Special Rapporteur concurs with the Special Rapporteur on summary, arbitrary and extrajudicial executions that while “… the scourge of armed robbery plagues much of Nigeria, the label of ‘armed robber’ is very often used to justify the jailing and/or extrajudicial execution of innocent individuals who have come to the attention of the police for reasons ranging from a refusal to pay a bribe to insulting or inconveniencing the police … [The rules contained in Police Order No. 237] are deeply flawed. They provide close to a carte blanche to the police to shoot and kill at will” (E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.4, paras. 43 and 46). A high proportion of individuals detained in the facilities that the Special Rapporteur visited were held on suspicion of armed robbery; many of them with close-range gunshot wounds to the feet and legs, which is reportedly a common practice to prevent suspects from fleeing once they have been apprehended and a means to make them confess on the threat of death. In custody, many of these detainees have not received any medical treatment for these injuries, which become seriously infected and consequently life-threatening. Allegations were received from detainees of prisoners dying as a result of such injuries, and this denial of medical treatment effectively amounts to extrajudicial killing. 40. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the legal system, visits to detention facilities, interviews with detainees, the support of forensic medical evidence, and interviews with government officials, lawyers and representatives of NGOs, the Special Rapporteur concludes that torture and ill-treatment are widespread in police custody, and particularly systemic at CIDs. Torture is an intrinsic part of how the police operate within the country. Impunity and lack of effective complaints mechanisms 41. There was no question about accountability of perpetrators because there are no functioning complaint mechanisms in place to receive allegations, and to report and seek effective redress for acts of torture. Victims, especially those still in detention, have no confidence in the existing mechanisms, such as reporting allegations directly to senior police officials or to the Human Rights Desks (in those stations where they exist) - for example, at CID Panti, Lagos, prisoners were detained and tortured right behind the Human Rights Desk.