‘We have received complaints on human rights abuses’

From Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

The Federal Government said on Monday that it has received a letter from the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, cataloging what has happened since the ease on the lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states.

The government said each component is broken and a similar letter has been sent to the head of the institution that is being accused of the infringement on human rights.

Chairman of the PTF on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, spoke at the daily briefing of the task force.

Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the government has aggregated the accusation and sent to heads of institutions involved so that proper investigation can be conducted to ascertain the authenticity of the allegation and disciplinary action taken.

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He said: “Even yesterday(on Monday) I got a letter from the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission cataloging what has happened since the ease on the lockdown and each component is broken and a similar letter goes to the head of the institution that is being accused of the infringement on human right.”

“We have tried as much as possible to deal with that and segregate whatever accusation there are and send to the various heads so that appropriate investigation and disciplinary action can be taken and proper investigations can be conducted to ascertain the veracity or the authenticity of the allegation.

“It is not just to be taken on the face value for most of the accusations that are being made. We have developed a process whenever those organisations like the police, the DSS, after they have investigated, we get a report and the intendment of that is for us to compile and keep for record purposes the number of infractions, the options taken and the remedies put in place.”

“Like you rightly said, after Covid -19, somebody can just raise an issue about human rights abuses, but if you have codified, documented what steps have been taken to redress those human rights abuses that will be a proper defence for the actions that have been taken by different security agencies and organisations.”