North: High rate of human rights violation due to ignorance, says Rights Commission

From Ahmed Kaigama,Bauchi

The North-East National Human Right Commission  has observed that most cases of human rights violations by security agents in northern part of the country takes place in rural communities, attributing the development to the high level of ignorance by the residents in the areas.

The Human Right Commission and the participants made the observation during a one day workshop, titled “constructing coalition to reduce human right abuses  by security forces in Northern Nigeria” organized by the North-East Nation Human Right Commissionvat the Development Exchange Commission(DEC)  at the weekend in Bauchi The workshop which had in attendance NGO’s Journalists, security agents,civil servants and National Human Right Commission aims at updating stakeholders in the north on issues of human right violations and abuses and action plan to stem the tide of violations in the north-east.

One participant who is a security agent, Okoh Philip observed that many groups that promote racial discrimination, religious persecution, and state-sponsored violence operate under the guise of local security agents.

The North-East Coordinator of National Human Right Commission, Babangida Labaran said that the commission has setup a committee to investigate cases of human rights violations in the north-east, noting that such cases are currently receiving the attention of the commission.