Nigeria @61: Experts advocate transitional justice for North East

The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu has called for transitional justice as the best way of getting people to accept and forgive each other for the pains and grief occasioned by insurgency.  While speaking on the occasion to mark Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary, where other experts warned the situation in the […]

The Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu has called for transitional justice as the best way of getting people to accept and forgive each other for the pains and grief occasioned by insurgency. 

While speaking on the occasion to mark Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary, where other experts warned the situation in the North East demands special attention following spiralling insurgency, armed robbery, kidnapping, abduction and killings as well as the controversy over plans to reintegrate repentant Boko Haram members.

According Ojukwu, the only way we can live peacefully to rebuild the North East made up of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (the BAY) states is through transitional justice. 

Ojukwu said insurgency in the North East has subjected people to the worst forms of human rights violations in the history of Nigeria and has brought untold physical, emotional and psychological losses on the victims and their families. “There is a need to put an end to the senseless human rights violation,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, Adamawa State, Barr. Bello Hamman Diram, said “the way out of the predicament is to consider the victims first for any form of empowerment because they have been subjected to abject poverty by the Boko Haram. The insurgents have turned people into IDPs in their own country, and some of them are still on the run because they feel threatened by those who want to forcefully initiate them into terrorism.

The Chief Imam of Malkohi Juma’at Mosque, Malam Ibrahim Aliyu, on his part expressed optimism on the success of the transitional justice project in his community, saying their fears of accepting repentant Boko Haram members were allayed when they started leaving together in peace.

Speaking amidst sobs, Salatu (not real name) a victim of insurgency, narrated how she buried her daughter and husband who were both killed by Boko Haram members right in front of her.