By Peter Uwumarogie
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Gombe State, said it received no fewer than 354 complaints of alleged human rights violations in 2022.
The Public Relations Officer of NHRC in the state, Ali Alola-Alfinti stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Tuesday.
He said that out of the figure, 148 cases representing 41.8 per cent of the total number of complaints of alleged human rights abuses in 2022 were on domestic violence.
Alola-Alfinti said the remaining 206 complaints reported to the commission were on alleged lack of fair hearing, denial of justice and rape.
Others are sexual assault, right to religion, right to life, threat to life, denial of properties amongst others.
He said domestic violence had become a cause for concern in the state as more persons were now coming out to report.
Alola-Alfinti said the reported 148 cases of domestic violence comprised 37 cases of parental neglect, battery or beating 30 cases, inhuman and degrading treatment 34 and child abandonment 47.
The spokesman said out of the 148 cases of domestic violence reported, over 120 had been resolved “amicably” while few were in court.
He said the commission had continue to monitor and visit homes to ensure compliance especially in cases of school enrollment, provision of feeding, healthcare amongst others.
He said in spite of massive sensitisation on the need to break the culture of silence and get victims to report abuses, a lot of cases still remain unreported in the state.
The NHRC official expressed the commission’s concerns over the increasing cases of child abandonment which he said had resulted to “untold hardship for children and their mothers.”
“The painful thing is that most of these people abandoning their children are working-class.
“This is the greatest sign of irresponsibility on the part of those fathers who abandon their household even when they have the means to cater for their children,“he said.
Alola-Alfinti appealed to the state government and non-governmental organisations to put more efforts in empowering women.
He urged parents to imbibe the culture of effective communication s in resolving domestic issues.
“There is no reason to beat your partners or abandon your children, the psychological impact of domestic violence on our children is better imagined than experienced,”he said.(NAN)
