Folarin Falana, popularly Hip Pop artiste known as Falz, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the governing council of the National Human Rights Commission.
The plea was made due to the high rate of police brutality during the protests. There has been complaints of attacks by the protesters in Abuja and Lagos.
Falz request was contained in an open letter sent to Mr President through his social media handle. It was titled ‘Request for reconstitution of the governing council of the National Human Rights Commission for the discharge of its functions with respect to cases of human rights violations in Nigeria.’
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Falz revealed that the Human Rights Commission as stated by the body’s constitution has the right to ‘receive complaints and investigate all alleged cases of human rights violations in Nigeria and make appropriate recommendations to the President.’
As a result, the ‘commission need not set up another panel for the exercise of its functions.’ This is in contrast to the creation of an independent panel as earlier stated by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President.
Falana further stated that there has been a national rise in the rate of human right abuses. This was due to the fact that the ‘National Human Rights Commission has remained without the Governing Council since 2015.’
The statement read in part, ‘It is pertinent to note that Section 5 of the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act 2010 empowers the National Human Rights Commission itself to receive complaints and investigate all alleged cases of human rights violations in Nigeria and make appropriate recommendations to the President.’
‘In the light of the foregoing, I hereby call on Your Excellency to immediately reconstitute the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission and to do so publicly as well as transparently in order to restore the confidence of young Nigerians in your proposed police reform process.’
‘Failure to do this would force young Nigerians to believe that the continuous refusal to re-constitute the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission is a deliberate attempt to mislead us into thinking genuine efforts are being made at reforming the Nigeria Police when in truth the opposite is the case.’
Peace Omenka
Photo Credit: Premium Times