Tag Archives: NHRC

NHRC plans to probe arrest of judges.

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said that it would soon commence full investigation into the arrest of some judges by the Department of State Services (DSS) to determine the alleged abuses of their human rights.

Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Ben Angwe, who stated this when he received some protesters under the umbrella of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) in his office yesterday, said the NHRC would not take side or orders from anybody in conducting the investigation.

He said the commission did not commence any action on the issue in the past because there were nine petitions before it.

Angwe said the petition by the group would enable the commission move into action, adding that the NHRC would be fair to all parties.
The group, led by its convener, Ikenga Ogochinyere, said it had rejected the call for the stepping aside of the arrested judges.

It also demanded that the DSS and other agencies release from detention all Nigerians who have been granted bail by the courts and who have fulfilled their bail conditions, including compliance with all judgments and orders.

Besides, the LDD and Citizens for Good Governance (CGG) have passed a vote of confidence on the National Judicial Council (NJC) over the manner it handled the invasion of the houses of two Supreme Court justices and five others by the DSS.

The lawyers, who besieged the entrance to the Federal High Court, Abuja described as unconstitutional the way the judges were arrested, saying it was a threat to democracy.

They, therefore, appealed to the United Nations (UN), United Kingdom (UK), United States (U.S.) and Amnesty International to call the Federal Government to order.

The groups further accused the executive of plotting to overthrow the judiciary so as to enthrone abuse of human rights and subversion of the rule of law.

In another development, the country representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Cristina Albertin, has said for the fight against corruption to be successful, the judiciary must be seen as keen to dispense justice.

She also said the fight against corruption was a prerequisite for development, social justice and eradication of poverty.

“The integrity of investigators and prosecutors must be beyond reproach. The best law has no value if it is not enforced.

“The best judges and magistrates are wasted if the cases are never brought to them; or if cases brought to them are incomplete and/or inadmissible in evidence”, she said.

15 Inmates Of Abakaliki Prison Are Mad– NHRC

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on Sunday expressed shock over the number of mad person cohabiting with sane inmate in the Abakaliki Federal prisons and demanded urgent attention to avoid uncertainty.

The commission said that more than 15 of the inmates awaiting trials in the prisons are already mad and require urgent medical attention.

It also said many children and their mothers have been languishing in the prisons for years for common offence which ordinarily shouldn’t have warranted their being taken to the prisons.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Professor Bem Angwe made the revelations at the Government House, Abakaliki  during a
courtesy call on Governor David Umahi.

Mr. Angwe said the commission was in Abakaliki to probe the attempted jailbreak of August 18 this year in which many inmates reportedly lost their lives.

‘’Some two weeks back when I led a team of the commission  on the spot assessment of the situation there in the Abakaliki  prisons and found very pathetic situation. Situation where the inmates awaiting trial are more than 80% and that has been the situation for years.

‘’Sadly, if you enter any of the prison cells, you find that the inmates have nowhere to sit, lay or squat. In the nights, they take
turn to sleep; some of them sleep for two hours and they are woken-up for other inmates to sleep.

‘’So many cases there are very sympathetic. We saw a woman with two children in the prisons. She was accused of stealing coco yam of N400.

“They refused to grant her bail. They made difficult bail condition for her that require two sureties who are on level 16 in civil service. You can imagine somebody who was accused of stealing N400 worth of cocoyam, what access will she has to a grade level 16 officials of
government?”.

‘’There are some other women there with children who have this kind of pathetic conditions. There is an old man who has been there for eleven years without trail and if the person is discharged, what amount of compensation will be adequate for someone who has been there for eleven years without trial?

‘’There are more than 15 persons there who are mentally sick. These are our brothers who require medical attention and they are allowed there. Some urgent must be done to save their conditions ’’, he said.

Angwe lamented that many people have died in the prisons while awaiting trails.

‘’There is a case over killing of a Monarch. While some highly placed personalities in the state was granted bail, the rest of the suspects have been kept in that prisons and they have been dying one after the other. Your Excellency, you have to set-up a committee to look into
this case because the suspects have been dying and their families requires compensation’’.

He urged Umahi to provide medical attention to the inmates who were shot during the attempted jailbreak.

Responding, Governor Umahi who expressed dismay over the poor facilities at the Abakaliki federal prisons, regretted that prisons higher authority have not paid attention to his letters on the need to rehabilitate the facilities.

He said if after seven days the authority refused to do something, the state government will be forced to embark on construction of befitting prisons for the inmates and directed the Commissioner for Lands and Survey to immediately commenced the process of constructing the prisons.

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90% Of Awaiting Trial Women Are Pregnant- NHRC

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The National Human Rights Commission says 90 per cent of women awaiting trial in prisons across the country are either nursing mothers or pregnant.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Bem Angwe, made this known when he received the National President, National Council of Women Societies, Mrs. Gloria Shoda, in his office in Abuja on Monday.

Angwe said that the percentage was derived from the commission’s recent prison audit in the country.

He said that the commission needed the collaboration of the NCWS to provide an immediate intervention in this regard.

“In our prisons today, we have a lot of nursing mothers who are being locked up with their children and are nursing these children in the prison cells.

“We also have instances where such women who are still carrying babies in prison are also pregnant.

“It is also sad to note that more than 90 per cent of these nursing mothers are still awaiting trial. These are women that should have been released on bail while awaiting their trial.

“But they are kept there in prison with their children who are made to serve prison terms when their mothers are not yet convicted,’’ Angwe said.

Angwe said that the commission was particularly concerned because there was no amount of compensation that would be given to such a child or even the mother that would be commensurate with the hardship endured.

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NHRC Chief Decries Neglect Of More Than 4,000 IDPs In Taraba

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Prof. Bem Angwe, the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC), has decried the neglect of no fewer than 4,723 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at various locations in Taraba.

 

A statement issued by the commission’s Deputy Director, Protection and Investigations, Mr Lambert Oparah on Sunday in Abuja, said that Angwe made this known while on an official visit in Taraba.

 

The statement said that Angwe described the situation in Taraba as highly deplorable and requiring urgent attention.

 

“Despite the fact that most of the IDPs had spent more than two years in their settlements, neither the government nor relevant agencies showed concern about their plights.

 

At Gullong, one of the settlements with over 259 IDPs, there were no foodstuffs, no mattresses, no security or even medical facilities for the displaced persons and their children.

 

The children were roaming about without any form of educational programme.

 

The Taraba government and relevant agencies have the obligation and responsibility to protect and provide for these people because they are Nigerian citizens,’’ the statement said.

 

 

The statement, therefore, called on the National Emergency Management Agency to take steps to rescue the situation.

 

 

Angwe promised to liaise with the Presidential Initiative on IDPs to improve the living standard of the internally displaced persons.

 

 

The statement said that Mr Nugalga Dan-Habu, the Permanent Secretary of the state’s emergency management agency, had told the visiting team that the state government was not aware of the presence of the IDPs in the state.

 

 

He, however, pledged to intimate the governor on the issue.

 

 

(NAN)

Maltreatment Of Patients: NHRC Vows To Prosecute Erring Hospitals

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The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has said it would henceforth prosecute hospitals and medical practitioners over any alleged unprofessional conduct. Consequently, the commission has implored Nigerians to report to it, cases of maltreatment or negligence by both private and public health care centres in the country.

 
Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof Ben Angwe, who made the call during the official launch of a research report on Human Rights and Maternal Mortality, said it was high time hospitals were made to pay for every act of negligence suffered by their patients. Angwe said he was shocked to discover that some women were evicted from their hospital bed to the corridor, “barely an hour after they gave birth.”

 
According to him, “that kind of thing is highly unacceptable in a country which not only recognises human rights of its citizens, but also respects them.“ He said the commission, in the course of its pilot study on women’s access to health care facilities in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory, also found out that over 90 babies that died shortly after birth, were abandoned in a mortuary by their parents.

 
He said it was disheartening for the commission to discover that sundry inhumane treatment are meted out on patients, especially pregnant women, in both private and public hospitals. The report focused on the six area councils of the FCT, where a total of 96 hospitals/healthcare facilities, comprising 51 primary, 43 private and government secondary and two tertiary healthcare institutions were surveyed.

 
Angwe said: “We are using this opportunity to urge Nigerians to report any unprofessional treatment they suffered in the hands of medical practitioners to us. “If a medical practitioner is alleged to have committed an act of negligence, that person must be prosecuted. We need cooperation to bring quack doctors that are busy killing people to Justice.”

 
Among stakeholders at the unveiling of the report yesterday were wives of the Chief of Defence Staff, Mrs. Omobolanle Olonisakin and the Inspector-General of Police, Mrs. Agharase Arase. The duo who are Presidents of Defence and Police Officers Wives Association, DEPOWA, and Police Officers’ Wives Association, POWA, bemoaned plights of pregnant women in the country who they said are badly treated by health officials in the hospitals.

 
Describing maternal mortality as a major challenge to gender equality, the NHRC boss said the magnitude of its incidence in Nigeria typified a form of social injustice against women. “Medical personnel who has been confirmed to have done an act of negligence will have to pay compensation. If it involves institution, the institution will make the victim become rich.
“It is only in Nigeria that a practitioner will be responsible for the death of a person and nothing happens and the personnel will continue his practice without losing his license.

 
“The tragedy of maternal and child death lies in the fact that that most of these deaths can be prevented if only all pregnant women have access to adequate ante natal care, skilled attendant at child birth, emergency obstetric care when pregnancy related complications arise and appropriate post natal care for mother and babies” Angwe noted.

Army Petitions NHRC Over Alleged Assassination Attempt On COAS

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The Nigerian Army has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over the alleged assassination attempt on the life of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai along Sokoto road in Zaria, Kaduna State on Saturday, December 12, 2015 by members of the Shiite sect.

Presenting a two-page petition to the NHRC, the Chief of Administration of the Nigerian Army, Major General Adamu Abubakar, said that personnel on the entourage of the Chief of Army Staff responded to gunshots fired at their convoy by members of the sect in order to provide a safe corridor for the Army Chief and his convoy.

“The Chief of Army Staff wishes to reiterate and assure the Shiites nationwide that the Nigerian Army is not in any way against them but was forced to respond to the brutal attack by some misguided elements within them,” he said.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Professor Bem Angwe, who received the petition on behalf of the commission promised to investigate the alleged attack in order to prevent a recurrence.

He acknowledged that the formal complaint by the Army was an indication that it recognises “the fact that Nigeria is in a democracy and that issues such as this must be handled under the rule of law”.

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APC Asks ICC, NHRC To Prosecute Fayose

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The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has urged the National Human Rights Commission and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Holland, to prosecute Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The party accused the governor of making inciting broadcast on the state radio and television by urging his supporters into “an act of rage and violence” to attack the 19 APC lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly thus preventing the lawmakers from performing their constitutional duties.

The APC said the statement by Fayose had threatened the peace of the state in the past few days.

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