NGO indicts police, army for over 50% human rights violation

By Andrew Orolua, Abuja

A civil society group, the CLEEN Foundation on Monday indicted security agencies, particularly the police and the army for leading other state actors in gross violations of human rights in the country.

The foundation disclosed this at a policy briefs validation/community accountability forum, held in Abuja. It said that while state actors accounted for more than 90 per cent of violations, “the police and army were the key violators of rights as both recorded over (50%) across the abuses.”

Executive Director, CLEEN, Benson Olugbuo in a presentation of the foundation’s research findings on improving human rights compliance in countering violent extremism, further disclosed that the right to life, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom from torture amongst others were the most violated by security organizations in the last four years.

The study aimed at gauging citizen’s perception of human rights violations in relation to government efforts to address pressing security challenges was carried out in Borno and Plataeu states.

Olugbuo however, regretted that “when state security forces are implicated in human rights violations, the entire efforts of the government to combat violent extremism and terrorism is often exposed to legal, moral, reputational and strategic risk”.

The report stated that majority of the abuses and violations took place at road checkpoints, compared to home, workplace, school and detention units in the two states.

Olugbou however, stated that most of these violations were not reported due to lack of trust in the government.

“In the case of rape, for instance, slightly more than half of the people (51%,) compared to (27%) in Borno did not report the case because they feel that the authorities would not do anything about it or would not take the case seriously,” he said.

To address the issue, the director called for the investigation and prosecution of any one found guilty of human rights violation as well as a re-evaluation of the use of roadblocks and checkpoints in internal security management.

In addition, the foundation advocated for the establishment of an inter-agency security and justice sector reform task force that would spearhead a comprehensive reform of the security and justice sector.

Other measures the report recommended include, the empowerment of the youth in order to diminish the appeal of violent extremism, prioritizing soft approach to countering violent extremism as well as expanding the reach of strategic communication.