Nigeria asks UK to train police

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Nigeria has asked Britain for help to reform and train its police force.

Interior Minister Godwin Abbe said a committee would work out the nature and extent of the British collaboration.

Human rights groups have accused the Nigerian police of killing and torturing suspects instead of arresting them and giving them a fair trial.

Police chief Mike Okiro has admitted that 785 suspected armed robbers - and 70 officers - have died in clashes with police in the last three months alone.

The toll prompted calls by human rights activists for an independent inquiry.

Crime and disorder

The BBC's Alex Last in Lagos says armed robbery is a huge problem in Nigeria, fuelled by unemployment, poverty and the proliferation of guns.

In March a UN special rapporteur said that Nigerian police routinely torture suspects, shooting them in the legs, beating them and hanging them from the ceiling to extract confessions.

The interior minister said a formal request for help was made by President Umaru Yar'Adua to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Commonwealth summit in Uganda that ended on Sunday.

"The British government is ready to support us in reorganising the Nigeria Police Force and empower it to be able to carry out its assigned role of ensuring law and order," Mr Abbe told reporters after a meeting of security chiefs with Mr Yar'Adua.