NHRC Decries Detention of 10 Bida Poly Students by Police

By Laleye Dipo in Minna

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has described as “wrongful” the detention by the police of 10 students of the Federal Polytechnic, Bida in Niger State.

The students were detained in connection with a recent clash between commercial vehicle drivers and some students of the school which resulted in the death of three people.

The Niger State Coordinator of NHRC, Mr Nuhu Mohammed, who disclosed this on Tuesday when he paid a courtesy visit to the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhaji Abdul Idris, also described the detention of the students as illegal, saying that the students were detained for more than 24 hours on the ground that they were being investigated.

Following the intervention of the commission, Mohammed said four of the students were released on Friday while the remaining six regained their freedom on Monday.

The coordinator also disclosed that domestic violence, child abuse and under aged forceful marriage were most of the cases the commission was handling, adding that most of those affected were already being prosecuted by the police on behalf of the commission.

Mohammed also disclosed that those parading themselves as human rights activists in the state “are fake”, insisting that “all of them, their non-governmental organisations are not registered with the commission”.

He solicited for the support and cooperation of the media in the state for the commission to achieve its objectives.

Responding, the NUJ Chairman Idris assured the commission that journalists in the state would support it in its advocacy drive.

Idris said the NUJ in the state and national levels recently embarked on a peaceful protest against illegal detention and maltreatment of journalists in the country, adding that the commission should support the media in this direction.