-By Oriade Ayomide
Contrary to claims by the Nigeria military Global rights monitor, the Human Rights Watch, in its 2014 World report has described the emergency rule in three states in the North-East as a failure.
The publication of the report, a review of human rights practices around the world, came barely a day after the newly appointed Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, vowed that the military would smoke out Boko Haram insurgents before April.
According to the HRW report, “more than 400 died in 2013 from violent inter-communal conflict in Middle Belt states and scores rendered homeless. Security forces throughout the country engaged in human rights abuses. There were few investigations or prosecutions of these crimes.”
“Horrific abuses in the North by the militant Islamist group, Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces’ heavy-handed response to this violence dominated Nigeria’s human rights landscape in 2013. In May, President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency, which was extended for another three months in November in the three states where Boko Haram is most active. The emergency failed to curb atrocities and to sufficiently protect civilians,” it said.
