The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC have pledged to further strengthen their existing relationship in order to better protect the human rights of Nigerians.

The two agencies made the pledge in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday, April 4, 2019 when a team of the NHRC officials in the state paid a courtesy visit to the Ibadan zonal office of the EFCC.

The state coordinator of the NHRC and leader of the team, Oyindamola Bamgbose, noted that the NHRC sought to announce its presence in the state capital to all strategic stakeholders, having been inaugurated in the state in February.

“We used to have zonal offices in places across the country. But the Commission has decided to have presence in all states of the federation. Oyo’s was one of the last batch of the offices created and we thought we must make our presence known to our critical stakeholders to further strengthen our relationship with them,” she said.

Bamgbose said the mandate of the NHRC was to “promote, protect and enforce human rights of people within the Nigerian territory”.

She explained that NHRC also visits prisons and detention centres to ensure that rights of suspects are not breached, while still in the custody of law enforcement agencies.

Head, Ibadan zonal office of the EFCC, Friday Ebelo, in his welcome address, said the anti-graft agency always ensured that no suspect was denied any of his/her rights as stipulated by the laws of the land.

He, however, noted that some suspects end up spending more days in the cell while trying to exercise their rights to make their statements in the presence of their lawyers.

“We know they have such rights which we always allow them to exercise. But some of them will remain in the cell for days when no lawyer shows up to stand for them as we take their statement.

“In such cases, they delay their own prosecution and in such instances, we cannot really help,” he said.

Ebelo added that apart from ensuring that the suspects in the EFCC custody are fed three times a day, the agency provides a modicum of comfort in its detention facilities across the country.

“Suspects’ rights are of priority to us and we make sure no innocent person is detained,” he reiterated.



Media & Publicity

April 4, 2019