Cleen Foundation, an NGO, has called for the establishment of a central digital complaint platform on human rights violations to assist law enforcement agencies address and speed up the justice process.
Mr Nnamdi Odo, the group’s Programme Officer, made the call on Friday in Abuja at the Human Rights coordination meeting for oversight agencies in Nigeria.
Odo said that there were usually delays in the administration of justice in cases of human rights violations due to lack of synergy amongst law enforcement agencies.
He therefore stressed the need to create a centralised digital platform for the public to easily report cases of violations and for law enforcement agencies to collectively access, disburse complains and address them speedily.
“We commend the law enforcement agencies on their improvement in creating digital platforms to handle cases of complaints on violations.
“However, more is expected of the agencies, especially in providing vital information to the public on complaint procedures and progress levels.
“We are happy that as agencies, you have individual platforms. However, what we are looking for is something that will bring in synergy amongst the agencies.
“You have your individual platforms, which you use to receive complaints, but we want something that will make the agencies communicate with each other while handling cases.
“So that you are able to maximize the resources that you have, which is time and money,” he said.
Odo said that with a central system, when complaints are handled by the Police Service Commission, there may be no need for another enforcement agency to pick up the same complaint or case.
He also said that with a central complaint platform, each agency could see and monitor the different levels of violations it was addressing, and there would be speed as more complaints would be addressed within a shorter time frame.
Odo lauded the various agencies’ commitment towards protecting human rights and in addressing and curbing human rights violations, especially by law enforcement agents.
He also on behalf of the group reiterated its commitment to continue to interface with the agencies to provide the necessary technical guides and advice.
CSP Almustapha Sani, Nigeria Police Head of Compliant Response, said that the Nigeria Police Force had created a platform whereby members of the public could report violations without physically approaching the police.
He said this mechanism was put in place to address issues and compliant of violations as well as protect the complainants.
“The Nigeria Police Force has created platforms that members of the public may not have to physically contact the police, platforms like social media, phone calls, SMS, and emails to report directly.
“We have a lot of collaboration internally and externally that deals with human rights violations, we have the provost Marshall office, the Force secretary office, the IGP monitoring team.
“All these teams have the mandate to solve these issues. Also, our external partners like the Human Rights Commission, Cleen Foundation, CSOs, and International Donors also handle these issues,” he said.
He said that there is a police department that monitors human rights violations videos that are uploaded to social media by citizens. They verify the cases, the location, and officers involved.
The police CSP also said other measures like access to the police public relations departments were available for direct complaints, which is also directly being reported to the office of the IGP.
He said that the police were committed to ensuring the dignity of citizens and advised members of the public to explore all means where their rights had been violated by officers of the police.
Air Vice-Marshal IJ Ukeh said that unfortunately, most of the cases being reported as violations against civilians were untrue, as those making the reports were mostly standing and violating the rights of officers.
According to him, the problem with people reporting the armed forces is that the same people stand on other people’s rights to complain about their own rights being violated.
“You are standing on someone’s right, and you are the one shouting that your rights have been violated because you are a civilian.
“Most of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who get involved are not patient enough to look at the issues from both ends,” he said.
Ukeh said that the military had all the mechanisms in place to address such issues adding that those involved must look at issues from both sides before concluding.
Mr Adamu Halilu, Liaising Officer of the Humans Rights Commission to Law Enforcement Agency, urged the various law enforcement agencies, especially the police, to live up to its mandates of safeguarding the dignity and rights of citizens.
Halilu said that the police must realise that it was the first and foremost agency saddled with responsibilities to defend citizens’ fundamental human rights.
“The challenge we always have with some of the law enforcement agencies is that they tend to forget that they are the first and foremost human rights defenders by virtue of their work.
“Without them, nobody can stand to advocate for any human rights issue, but even with their nature of work, they fail to realise that human rights protection is an integrated and crucial function.
“Because they operate on behalf of the state, they are the foremost human rights defenders,” he said.
He said that the commission was working tirelessly to protect the rights of civilians and the military irrespective of status and would not prioritise one over the other as perceived by some officers.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)