Boko Haram: NHRC clears Air Force of rights abuses

The National Human Rights Commission has lauded the men and officers of the Nigerian Air Force for their conduct in prosecuting the war against insurgency in the North-East.

Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, said record of “acrimony” between the Air Force and the public had been low even in the heat of the anti-terrorism war.

Angwe was on Sunday quoted in a statement by the Chief Press Officer of the commission, Mrs. Fatimah Agwai, as making this comment while receiving the Director of Civil and Military Relations of the Air Force, Air Commodore Afam Chukwu, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Chukwu was said to have paid the visit to intimate the commission on the establishment of the newly created Directorate of Civil and Military Relations in the Nigerian Air Force.

Angwe noted, during the interaction between him and Chukwu, that the commission had observed that officers of the Air Force had always exhibited high sense of disciplinary conduct.

He said, “Even in the face of active hostility in the fight against insurgency, the commission recorded insignificant acrimony between the public and the Nigerian Air Force, which is an indication that officers of the Nigerian Air Force have high regard and respect for the human rights and
fundamental freedoms of the civilian populace.”

The NHRC boss said the newly established DCMR “would usher in a smooth relationship between the Air Force and the Nigerian public.”

Earlier in his remarks, Chukwu said the DCMR was recently established to serve as a veritable platform for mutually beneficial interface between the Air Force as part of the Armed Forces and the Nigerian public.

He applauded the NHRC’s strong advocacy on the issue of human rights in Nigeria, while noting that the commission’s intervention had lessened animosity between the military and
the general public, as officers had now been trained to respect the laws of armed conflict.

SOURCE: Ade Adesomoju, Abuja