Centre reports rights abuses in Rivers, Edo, Akwa Ibom, others to NHRC

 Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

A YOUTHS Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC) has sent a report of human rights abuses that allegedly occurred in the Niger Delta states during the enforcement of COVID-19 preventive measures to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Its Executive Director, Fyneface Demnamene, who handed over the report to the Port Harcourt Zonal Officer of NHRC, said most of the abuses, especially in Rivers State, came from the police and the state task force on illegal street trading and motor parks.

The Rivers task force has since been proscribed by the state government.

He said the document only covered human rights violations and abuses his organisation and its partners were able to monitor and report across the captured states.

Read Also: NHRC urges workers to shelve planned strike

NHRC Coordinator, Rivers State Office Chinwe Okoroji said the complaints of human rights abuses were high in Rivers.

Okoroji said: “We have had so many reports of human rights abuses. From the assessment of the office last month, Rivers State office received the second-highest human rights complaints in the country.

“We quite commend what you did during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is indeed commendable; we the National Human Rights Commission started it off. All those days, we were on the road and covered the places we were able to and wrote our reports.”