The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) panel of inquiry into the allegations of human rights violations against the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has received 150 complaints.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Mr Tony Ojukwu, who made this known at the inaugural sitting of the panel on Human Rights Violations, said that the petitions were received from the six geo-political zones and the FCT.
Ojukwu, therefore, urged the members of the panel to focus on justice to both the complainants and the alleged violators.
“The panel must focus on substantial justice to both the complainants and the alleged violators because Human Rights Commission Panel and must not be involved in a miscarriage of justice,” he admonished.
“The panel is set up pursuant to the inherent mandate of the NHRC to investigate human rights violation in accordance with Section 6(1)(a,d,e,f and g) of the National Human Rights Commission Act 1995 as amended by the NHRC Amendment Act, 2010.
“The survival of the NPF will depend on its perceived usefulness to the people of Nigeria.
“A state of police brutality and impunity cannot help this positive perception,” Ojukwu said.
In his remarks at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, venue of the panel’s sitting, the chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima said: “Human rights are God-given and violations of such by anyone is absolutely condemnable.
“I assure you that the panel will be fair and just to everyone who appears before it.
“We will deliver on this monumental task before us. We will do substantial justice to all” he said.
