NHRC receives 104 complaints of alleged human rights violations
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has received 104 complaints and incidents of alleged human rights violations from April 27 – May 3
Executive Secretary of NHRC, Mr, Tony Ojukwu, made this known on Monday in a report released in Abuja, on the incidence of violation of human rights during the previous lockdown.
Ojukwu had in a report released on April 15, said the commission received 105 complaints and incidents of alleged human rights violations from March 30 and April 13.
”Out of 104 complaints/incidents of human rights violations received and documented within the period, 49 complaints were received/documented within the first week of the extended lockdown period from April 13 to April 20,
”33 complaints were received from April 20 to April 27 and from April 27 to May 4, only 23 complaints/incidents were received/documented by the commission. This shows weekly reduction in complaints received” he stated.
Ojukwu stated that the report also documents the various thematic areas in which the violations occurred and the nature of the violations.
”It shows a reduction in the total number of complaints on human rights violations received/documented by the commission from 105 as contained in the first report released by the commission on April 14.
‘This shows an improvement of the state of human rights in the enforcement of COVID-19 regulations by law- enforcement officers, task forces on COVID-19 and other non-state actors” he said.
According to Ojukwu, this improvement is attributed to the level of awareness created by the commission following the release of its initial report of April 14.
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He added also thst the reduction was the efforts to ensure accountability and adherence to the rules of engagement on the part of law -enforcement agencies.
Also, the disaggregated data on state reported violations, the agencies of government responsible for the violations as well as the response/action taken to remedy the violations.
”The report shows that Enugu state has the highest recorded cases with 13 incidents unlike Lagos state that had the highest cases with 28 incidents in the earlier report released on April 14 by the commission.
”This is followed by Imo state which had 12 incidents, Akwa Ibom and Nasarawa states recorded 10 incidents each, while Delta and Abia states recorded nine and seven incidents respectively.
”Niger, Zamfara, Osun and Rivers states recorded three incidents each, Anambra, Jigawa, Bayelsa and Edo states recorded two incidents each, while Ogun, Kogi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Kano, Cross River and Ekiti states recorded one incident each” he said.
Ojukwu said that the report shows some improvement and restraint in enforcement of the lockdown on the part of law -enforcement officials.
He added that this followed the public outrage and condemnation by all levels of authorities in the government, judiciary, the legislature and the executive as well as civil society.
