Rising human rights violations worrisome — NHRC

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday, expressed worries over the increase in human rights violations in Nigeria.

Speaking during the presentation of the Human Rights Dashboard in Abuja on Tuesday, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu (SAN) represented by his Senior Adviser on Human Rights, Mr Hillary Ogbona regretted that the North-Central zone has the highest number of rights violations, with Abuja having 382 out of 1,147 complaints received in January, 2024.

Ojukwu said the Commission has 36 collection centers and in Abuja to receive complaints of human rights violations  and that the figures represent only a fraction of rights violations in the country as a large number of other violations are unreported.

According to the dashboard, the North Western region has the highest number of domestic violence in the country, saying that, domestic violence includes wife battery, rape, child abandonment, and assault.

Ogbona, who is the coordinator of the human rights dashboard said, the general human rights violations not reported but captured, analysed include, increase in kidnapping with children and young people as soft targets.

The NHRC lamented that the situation in Plateau state and the attacks on traditional institutions like what happened in Ekiti state are serious concerns to the Commission.

“Based on our analysis, 125 kidnapping cases were recorded in January, 56 killings, 22 children kidnapped and 12 of them killed,” he said.

He added that, while 10 children were victims of torture, 7 law enforcement officers were killed in January.

While pointing out that the  NHRC had the mandate to investigate human rights violations in the country, Ojukwu said Nigeria will continue to face multiple challenges in the protection and enjoyment of human rights in view of the rising insecurity.

He said kidnapping and other activities of nonstate actors have posed  challenges to the enjoyment of human rights across the country.