NHRC to create database for missing insurgency victims

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission said on Thursday that Nigerians who were missing as a result of the insurgency activities of Boko Haram in the North East were more than the 1.8 million persons, officially described as the internally displaced in the region.

It said it had therefore, in conjunction with the Bring Back Our Girls group, planned to create a database of Nigerians that are missing as a result of insurgency or other criminal activities in the country.

Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, said this at the headquarters of the commission in Abuja during the opening ceremony of the ‘Preliminary Stakeholders Meeting on Victims of Insurgency Database Committee’ on Thursday.

Some government agencies, represented at the event included the National Identity Management Commission, the National Security and Civil Defence Service Corps, National Information Technology Development Agency, Red Cross and the BBOG group.

In his address, Angwe said beyond the 1.8 million persons officially recorded as internally displaced, there were unknown missing others and those who had been abducted by the insurgents.

He said, “Officially today, about 1.8 million persons are displaced as a result of insurgent activities.

“Officially again, we don’t have the record of those who are affected by the insurgency in Nigeria. Some are displaced and are not part of the 1.8million said to be displaced today.

“Some are missing and some have been abducted by the insurgents.”

He regretted that as the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram members from Chibok community in Borno State in April 2014, there were thousands of others who remained missing as a result of similar incidents.

 

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