By Angela Atabo
Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, has tasked the Federal Government on the need to ensure full implementation of human rights laws in Nigeria.
Falana said this at a Capacity Development Retreat for the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) with support from the National Endowment For Democracy (NED).
He said that although Nigeria has one of the best human right laws in the world, the implementation has been very poor.
Falana listed some of the laws to include African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which contained political and civil rights, social economic rights and Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
He said that the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Child Rights Act and Disabilities Act were all good laws.
Falana said however, that the implementation of the laws has not been encouraging.
“Under the Police Establishment Act , enacted in 2020 and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, no Nigerian shall be detained for a civil wrong in our country.
“This means that a tenant will not be detained in the police station for not being able to pay his rent, a person will also not be detained for land trespass.
“A relation cannot be arrested in the place of another person because the culprit cannot be found because it has been prohibited that nobody shall be arrested in lieu of another person.
“The law also says that nobody shall be taken to a police station or any station without the knowledge of his family and a lawyer should be provided if the person has none,” he said.
Falana said that some of the laws provided that suspects were not bound to make statements without consulting their lawyers or relations.
He said that the laws stated that confessional statements must be recorded, to prevent situations where suspects would claim that they were tortured to make statements.
“The Anti-Toture Act of 2017 makes it impossible to torture people to make statements, if anybody is tortured in Nigeria today the penalty is 25 years imprisonment with no option of fine.
“Under the law, people with gunshot wounds without police report cannot be rejected even if they are armed robbery or murder suspects because they must live to stand trial,” he said.
Falana however, said that most Nigerians were ignorant of the laws as they were being made to suffer all manner of human rights violations.
“When I said these laws are on paper ,I was saying that majority of our people are ignorant of their rights under these laws,” he said.
He urged the National Assembly to collaborate with the National Human Rights Commission, National Orientation Agency and other bodies to enforce the laws, educate Nigerians and monitor the process of their implementation.
The Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights, Rep. John Dyegh said that the committee would continue to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve its mandate of protecting Nigerians against human rights abuse.
Dyegh said that the committee has continued to perform its duty as the natural guardian of human rights by promoting and protecting the rights of citizens through ensuring that policies and programmes meet necessary human rights standards.
“Consequently, the committee at previous times partnered with NGOs , government agencies and NHRC to build capacity,draw out work plans as well as introduce sensitive human rights bills.
“As you may know,a perfect atmosphere of rule of law and respect for human rights cannot be suddenly attained given Nigeria’s peculiarity coupled with the general challenges arising from civic ,economic ,cultural and political issues,” he said.
Dyegh expressed hope that the retreat would provide a platform for actors to deliberate, and review previous resolutions on human rights violations in the country.
Mr Clement Nwankwo, the Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) said that there were issues of human rights interest in the country adding that the House Committee has a special role to play to draw attention and help resolve some of the issues.
Nwankwo said that security personnel in the country sometimes abuse the rights of citizens adding that journalists, human rights activists who had spoken in the past about the state of affairs of the country were arrested and detained.
“Given all of the enormity of human rights violations in this country, the Committee on Human Rights has a responsibility to assist citizens and also assist agencies of government to minimise the levels of violations of human rights.
“This is because if everyone understand his role as government agency,as security department, the levels of violations we see of human rights in this country will be minimised,” he said.
Nwankwo charged the committee to join in helping to promote citizens’ rights and also help to educate agencies of government involved in security management to understand the extent of their powers.
The Executive Secretary, NHRC Anthony Ojukwu, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said that the commission was monitoring all detention centers in the country to ensure that suspects were taking to court for trial as well as address human rights violation that could trigger insecurity.
(NAN)
