1 October 2006
Lagos — National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on the House of Represen-tatives to fast-track the passage of a bill seeking to amend the NHRC enabling statute.
The commission, however, commended the Senate for its expeditious action on the private member bill sponsored by Senator Gbenga Ogunniya.
The appeal was made in Abuja, by the chairman of the NHRC, Justice Anthony Iguh, at a roundtable on the commission's Act Amendment Bill.
Iguh lamented that the commission had been constrained from achieving its mandate due to lack of finance and inadequacies in its legal framework since its inception in 1995.
"This had necessitated earlier consultations with various stakeholders on the necessary amendments to the enabling statute of the Commission to strengthen its efficiency, effectiveness and independence", he added.
Explaining the areas to be amended in the Bill, the executive secretary of the Commission, Mrs Kehinde Ajoni, said the Commission should be empowered to summon people suspected of human rights abuses.
She also said there was a proposal in the bill for immunity for members of staff of the commission as well as freedom to have access to information on human rights abuses.
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