Reports Says 6,000 Innocent Children Held In Nigerian Prisons.

Nigeria's notorious jails and detention centres hold an estimated 6,000 children and minors, many of whom were born there and now serve terms with their parents despite a government's order to effect their release, the United States country human rights report on Nigeria says.

Although Nigerian law forbids the imprisonment of children, by the end of 2012, the government has taken no clear step to implement its order to release and rehabilitate the children, the report, quoting an African Union study, says.

"A report by the African Union on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian child found an estimated 6,000 children lived in prisons and detention centers," the report says. "Despite a government order to identify and release such children and their mothers, authorities had not done so by year's end."

Published by the US state department on country-by-country basis, the document catalogues a range of abuses and rights violations the Nigerian government is guilty of; and particularly delivered a stinging indictment of the government's record on corruption, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and impunity in 2012.

"Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government. The government brought few persons to justice for abuses and corruption," the report says.

"Police and security forces generally operated with impunity. Authorities did not investigate the majority of cases of police abuse or punish perpetrators. Authorities generally did not hold police accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody."

For all, the most serious human rights problem for the nation during the year, the U.S. department said, were abuses committed by the militant sect, Boko Haram, which conducted killings, bombings, kidnappings, and other attacks mainly in northern states.

While the extremist group killed and maimed, the nation also witnessed serious rights violations with illegal killings by security forces, including summary executions, torture, rape, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees, and criminal suspects, the report said.

The U.S. verdict for 2012 is similar to that delivered on Nigeria in 2011. The 2011 report highlighted Boko Haram and Nigeria's security forces involved in a brutal crackdown on the extremists as the gravest human rights abusers. It also noted the rocketing corruption level in the country.