FACT CHECK: Does NHRC receive over 2m complaints, petitions annually?

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu, has said that the commission receives over two million complaints and petitions from Nigerians annually.

Ojukwu disclosed this at a media parley in Abuja where he also said that the commission would need over N10 million to investigate the complaints.

If the commission claims to receive over two million complaints annually, that would be over 5,000 complaints in a day.

Verification

In a bid to verify the number of complaints disclosed by the executive secretary, fact-checkers at Daily Trust visited the commission’s official website and discovered the annual report of 2023 had not been uploaded.

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Similarly, other reports on the website were looked into and in 2022 the commission received over 2.3 million complaints.

The commission’s spokesperson, Aisha Mohammed, confirmed to our correspondent that the over two million complaints were received at the headquarters in Abuja and its branches in the 36 states including other branches in the FCT.

Mohammed added that the 2023 reports had not been uploaded on the commission’s website because the year has not come to an end.

She also noted that the over two million complaints were a compilation of all kinds of human rights issues reported.

Conclusion

Based on verifiable information on the commission’s website, fact-checkers at Daily Trust can confirm that the claim of over 2 million complaints disclosed by the executive secretary of the NHRC is accurate.