PEOPLES GAZETTE
Plans are underway by President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime to create a database that would comprehensively capture the details of missing persons in Nigeria.
The executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu, disclosed this at a meeting of stakeholders involved in the compilation of missing persons in Nigeria.
Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said the latest figures showed that out of the 64,000 disappeared persons across Africa, Nigeria recorded 25,000 missing persons, including over 14,000 children.
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development organised the meeting in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and NHRC.
Mr Ojukwu, represented by the director of the Human Rights Institute, Ifeoma Nwakama, stated that the family members of the missing persons had continued to seek answers from the government on the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Speaking on plans by the government to locate such persons in the country, the NHRC boss said, “Looking inward, so to say, at the NHRC, we have always played a key role in this issue because when you talk about missing persons, there are human rights issues, there are humanitarian issues, and there are overlap between when you talk about missing persons.”
He added, “We can no longer refer to only what’s happening in the Northeast. Where is it not happening? It is happening all over the country. One of the issues it throws up is the issue of displacement, issue of family separation and the issue of people not being accounted for, and no responsible government would leave this matter without addressing it. I also believe that we will soon begin to see ourselves the role that we can play in bringing this to fruition to the extent that we will get to that stage where we will have a proper database.”
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