Human Rights: CSOs Demand More Accountability from Security Agencies

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Civil society organisations and human rights groups have urged security agencies and other law enforcement authorities in the country to do more to improve on their human rights protection records.

The groups said that incidence of human rights violations in the country has escalated, with the police, military, departments and agencies of government cited in several cases of human rights violations reported.

Speaking at held Dialogue Session on “Exploring Remedies for Human Rights Abuses” organised by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) with support from National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Abuja on Monday, Executive Director of PLAC, Clement Nwankwo, said that recent events in the country about clash of security agents and citizens have necessitated the move to appraise the level of compliance to human rights provisions.

Nwankwo said the aim of convening the dialogue session was to share with human rights organisations and advocates, the options available for them to promote and protect human rights in Nigeria.

He said the meeting provided a platform to discuss the best strategies to tackle the challenge of increasing human right violations and shrinking civic space in Nigeria, as well as identify available remedies for victims of huma rights abuses.

According to him, “There is also now, the rising problem of the military assuming a role in apprehending individuals and investigating offences, which are ordinarily within the purview of police functions.

“This perhaps is attributed to an upsurge in the brutal attacks on military personnel. Although the courts remain a key recourse for victims of human rights abuse, the use of other instruments of redress is largely unknown and either unused or under-utilised.

“What we have done at the meeting was to bring together human rights activists working in field to share with them concerns about where were are as a country, mechanisms and remedies available for Human victims seeking redress.” 

As Nigeria marks the 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, Nwankwo said that it necessary at this stage to appraise the level of respect for human rights.

He said that for democracy to survive in the country, there’s need to uphold respect and protection of human rights.

“Citizens and everyone need to towards ensuring that this is achieved,” he added.

Nwankwo said that the judiciary has a lot to do to support this aspiration by looking at the human face involved while discharging justice.

A senior official in Police Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Police Affairs, Simon Musa defended the police conduct saying that the Force has always attended cases of rights violations that were properly brought before it.

He however urged citizens and civil society activists to cooperate the security agencies in addressing any observed shortcomings.

On his part, the Programme Director of Clean Foundation said there is need to strengthen security institutions to enable them meet the accountability requirements of protecting citizen’s human rights in Nigeria.

In the same vein, the representative of Amnesty International Mr. Maurice Ameh, said that the challenges most CSOs have is that they lack the capacity to go beyond calling out government and other violators of human rights in Nigeria.

He however said that the rights group has recently devised a way of bringing security agencies to account through litigation and publication of incident reports.

He said CSOs also engage in detailed documentation of civil rights violations which they submit regularly to the appropriate United Nations agency.

He said that through these measures, CSOs will be able to put considerable pressures on the authorities in the country to respond to adequately to cases of human rights abuses.

The Executive Secretary of the Human Rights Commission who was represented by Nnamdi Obiora said that the Commission constantly monitors various security agencies to ensure their compliance with human rights provisions

Responding to question on strategies the Commission is adopting to resist pressures from highly placed persons seeking to influence their work, Obiora said that by the Act setting the body, it is independent and does not succumb to such pressures.

On the recent clash between soldiers and traders at Banex Plaza Shopping Centre in Abuja, Obiora said that the incident is being investigated adding that the commission make the outcome public soon.