Human rights commission sued over ‘refusal to treat complaint’

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been sued for allegedly refusing to treat a complaint.

Anthony Ojukwu and Salamatu Suleiman, the commission’s executive secretary and governing council chair respectively, were named as defendants in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1135/2024.

The suit was filed on August 8 by Sesugh Akume, an activist.

In a statement on Thursday, Akume said he had notified the commission of a widely reported attack in March 2023 on Sankera, a community in the Benue north-east district.

He alleged that the attack was carried out by a military task force and that it led to the death of one person.

Akume said more than 100 motorcycles were allegedly carted away by the task force.

“This matter was reported to NHRC at their Abuja headquarters, NHRC being Nigeria’s alternate human rights court with the full power to investigate reports of human rights abuses and to make determinations which are binding with the full force of law and enforceable,” he said.

“Within three weeks of filing the complaint, preliminary investigations were carried out and concluded by the NHRC Benue office which actually went to Jootar to interface with the victims and gather evidence, and reported back to their Abuja head office.

“The report of preliminary investigations had evidence from the mortuary and other proof of the fatality; evidence of the serious injury, and details of the motorcycles forcefully taken away with all required supporting documents, along with the names and telephone numbers of the victims who all committed to testifying in person whenever called upon.

“After months of diligent but fruitless follow up at the Abuja head office, NHRC wrote me on 7 November that they had forwarded my complaint to the military to investigate itself as well as the victims and that their report, whenever it is submitted to NHRC, will be handed over to me whenever it is ready, but that I should note that these things take time.

“I wrote back to them to make it abundantly clear that this position was not tenable, and the procedure rather strange, and urged them to kindly do their work as mandated by the NHRC Act 1995 and possibly conclude it before the one-year anniversary of the sad event, in order to allow the people gain closure and move on with their lives.”

Akume added that in March this year, he received a phone call from Andrew John, a captain at the Joe Akaahan Cantonment, Makurdi, that the NHRC had forwarded his complaint.

“He, among other things, asked me to help get the victims to be present at their barracks in Makurdi for ‘investigations’, etc,” he said.

“I found this to be the height of insensitivity and even insolence also being that this call came in a day after exactly one year of the said attack.

“Further correspondence with the NHRC regarding the abuse and trauma inflicted upon me by that call by the military, how I felt mocked, and how the victims were undermined, along with my pleas to use their good offices to conclude this matter, resulted in nothing.”

He said he decided to seek redress in court in a bid to compel the NHRC to act.