Security Agents Kill 11 Nigerians While Enforcing Lockdown

The National Human Rights Commission has said that security agents enforcing the lockdown order put in place by government to curb the spread of Coronavirus across the country have killed 11 persons.

The commission said the police was responsible for seven deaths while the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, non-state actors and the Abia State Task Force on COVID-19 were responsible for one death each.

In a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by the Executive Secretary of commission, Tony Ojukwu, the NHRC said a total of 104 complaints were received from 27 states.

He stated that there was a reduction in the total number of complaints on human rights violations received by the commission from 105 as contained in the first report for a period of two weeks.

The commission added that investigation was still ongoing as at the time of the report to unravel the perpetrators of the extra-judicial killing that occurred in Jigawa State.

The statement reads, “The report also shows that Enugu State has the highest recorded cases with 13 incidents unlike Lagos State that had the highest cases with 28 incidents in the earlier report released on 14/4/2020 by the commission.

“This is followed by Imo State which had 12 incidents. Akwa Ibom and Nasarawa states recorded 10 incidents each, while Delta and Abia states recorded nine and seven incidents respectively.”

He attributed the improvement to the level of awareness created by the commission following the release of its initial report as well as efforts to ensure accountability and adherence to the rules of engagement on the part of law enforcement agencies.