War On Terror: Chief Justice Asks Troops To Respect Human Rights

►The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma-Muktar, has advised security agents deployed across the country to ensure they respect human rights in their fight against terrorism.

►Addressing participants at a gathering on the rule of law in combating terrorism, Justice Aloma-Muktar explained that upholding human rights was not merely compatible with a successful counter terrorism strategy but an essential element of it.

►The Chief Justice noted that compromising human rights had the capacity to provoke tension, hatred and mistrust of government among the citizens.

Rights group, Amnesty International (AI), in March said both the Nigerian security agencies and the Boko Haram insurgents committed war crimes in the troubled northeast.

The group in a statement said more than 1,500 people had been killed in the first three months of 2014, and that the situation in the north-east region had escalated into a non-international armed conflict.

Amnesty said it had documented the killings carried out in January, February and March 2014 by both Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces.

Part of the statement read: “AI has received credible evidence that as the military regained control, more than 600 people, mostly unarmed recaptured detainees, were extra-judicially executed in various locations across Maiduguri”.

The rights group has asked the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the U.N. Human Rights Council to ensure prompt, independent investigations into acts that might constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The military had dismissed the allegation as “totally untrue” .

“We cannot understand these claims of human rights abuses against our men who are putting their lives in danger to ensure the safety of the masses,” army spokesman, Chris Olukolade said.