Following human rights violations reports published by Reuters in December 2022 on military operations in the North East, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Tuesday set up a panel to investigate the allegations.
The panel is led by Justice Abdu Aboki, a retired justice of the Supreme Court.
Inaugurating the panel in Abuja yesterday, NHRC Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu, said the panel was mandated to investigate allegations of gross violations of national and international human rights laws/principles against the Nigerian Armed Forces in the three reports by Reuters.
He said the panel would receive a memorandum from individuals and organisations with interest in the subject matter of the mandate of the Special Independent Investigative Panel (SIIP) North-East, especially human rights, security and humanitarian organisations working in the zone. Ojukwu said they were to make appropriate determinations as to the culpability of individuals or institutions as might be deemed necessary in each circumstance.
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He also said they had the mandate to refer any matter of human rights violations requiring prosecution to the Attorney-General of the Federation or of a state and as well make recommendations to the government on institutional, policy and regulatory measures that should be taken to integrate human rights principles and practices into military and counter-insurgency operations.
He noted that SIIP North-East shall operate under the mandate of the NHRC and shall enjoy its express and incidental powers.
The chairman of the panel, Justice Aboki assured to be fair and just to all persons who appear before the panel as victims, officers, witnesses, respondents, counsel and citizens.
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