Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, says the Nigerian Army will investigate all cases of human rights complaints brought before it.
The Army has, over the years, received a lot of stick from Amnesty International, as well as other local and international human rights bodies over alleged extrajudicial killings, especially in the Boko Haram war and more recently, the massacre of over 300 Shiite Muslims in Zaria, Kaduna.
In view of this, the Army Human Right Desk was commissioned on Thursday at the Army Headquarters, where Buratai was represented by the Chief of Civil-Military Affairs (CCMA) Maj-Gen. Rogers Nicholas.
During the commissioning, the Army Chief said that under his leadership, the army will ‘open up the system and close the gap with the civil populace, human rights bodies and civil society organisations’.
“The concept note for the efforts of the Human Rights office in the Army Headquarters (AHQ) has as a result of increasing interest of local and international Human Rights organisations and institutions in the Nigerian Army human relations footprints but specifically in areas of our operations in North East.
“The nature of inquiries and commentaries from these institutions requires a response of professional and specialised in nature by the NA. What we are witnessing today has been facilitated by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).”
“They are also to make their findings to the COAS on human rights complaints in the country; produce annual reports; review, update existing training manual; facilitate participation of NA officers in local/international training programme,” he said.
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