NHRC decries increase in human rights violations

• N’East, S’East top chart

From Godwin Tsa Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has decried the rising cases of human rights violations in the country, describing the killings and other forms of rights abuses recorded in the month of August 2025 as appalling with the North-East and the South-East topping the chart.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Tony Ojukwu, disclosed that in the month of August, the commission received 365, 224 complaints of human rights violations and killings from across its 38 collections centres with Zamfara and Katsina states leading with incidences of banditry and mass killings, like the tragic loss of 50 worshippers in a Katsina mosque and abductions of 45 in Zamfara’s Bakura.

While presenting its August 2025 human rights situation dashboard at the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja, Ojukwu said the commission was not relenting in its efforts in the protection of human rights of forcibly displaced persons through information/data collection and documentation in Nigeria initiative, spotlighting the plights of IDPs, returnees, refugees and asylum seekers tracked from May to July 2025.

A summary of the August 2025 human rights abuses and infractions revealed 450 cases of kidnappings and 306 cases of killings. Child abandonment recorded 368 cases while 14 cases of killing of armed forces/law enforcement agents were recorded.

Giving a breakdown of the complaints, the commission disclosed that the North Central topped the chart with 152,870 cases, followed by the North West where 70,000 cases were recorded. The North-East recorded 68,578 cases, South East with 45,848, South-South with 14,041 and the South- West with 13,864 cases, all in the month of August 2025.

A breakdown of the figures from the dashboard showed the that Benue State topped the charts for cases of human rights complaints with 43,419 cases, followed by Borno State with 35,107 cases, Kaduna with 29,250, Niger with 23,107 and Plateau with 21,578. Others are Imo, Sokoto, Kogi, Enugu and Bauchi states completing the 10 top states with cases of rights abuses.

For the perpetrators of killings in the month of August under review, the unknown gunmen  killed 65 persons, bandits killed 135 persons, Lakurawa terrorist group 22, Boko Haram 35, cultists five and others 44.

In urban centres like FCT and Kwara, mob justice surged, with lynchings over theft and blasphemy allegations, reflecting a crisis of trust in law enforcement.

According to Ojukwu, the NHRC Observatory observed a rise in violations against vulnerable groups. Sexual and gender-based violence targeted minors, with cases of rape against girls as young as two in Ekiti and seven in Ondo.

In his words: “Our dashboard on human rights and internal displacements reveal humanitarian crises of immense proportion. Multiple factors, such as raging conflicts, banditry, and climatic disasters have thrown up internal displacements impacting on the human rights of poor and already traumatised populations. Our engagement with community protection action group members in project documented 8,966 displacements between May to July and a cumulative 53,261 from February to July. These are not just mere numbers. They represent Nigerians who have been exposed to multiple human rights violations, impacting on their dignity and humanity.

“The National Human Rights Commission with the support of our partners, UNHCR have also documented rising incidences of numbers of populations of returnees and refugees across our project sites. Between the months of May and July, there were 10,710 returnees to communities, 5,191 refugees and 2.275 asylum seekers in the same period.

Ojukwu, however, called on the relevant stakeholders, including governments, humanitarian organisations to make provisions for the full enjoyment of human rights for these populations of concern.