Unethical police practices, increasing exploitation in housing, power in focus as group commemorate 2025 Human Rights Day
By Oswald Agwu, Abakaliki
The Nigeria Police has been urged to stop its personnel from indulging in certain unethical practices which constitute human right abuses, contributing to delayed justice and the gross congestion of correctional facilities across the country.
The call was part of issues of concern raised during a press conference in commemoration of the World Human Rights Day, 2025, with the theme: “Human Rights: Our Everyday Essentials”.
World Human Right day is observed December 10, every year.
The Press conference was organised by the Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Centre, Abakaliki, a Civil Society organisation, in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission and the Ebonyi State Civil Society network, with support from the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society.
Addressing journalists on concerns over worsening patterns of human rights abuses across the state, the Executive Director of HRCRC, George Etamesor, condemned certain persistent negative Police practices, including demanding money before opening case files, charging for arrests, unlawful detention of suspects beyond the legally stipulated time, and making bail inaccessible despite the legal provision that bail is free.
He noted that such practices, apart from scuttling justice delivery, empower wealthy offenders while undermining justice for the poor.
Etamesor decried the sorry state and level of congestion at the Abakaliki Correctional Centre, stating that the facility originally built for 387 inmates houses 1,051 inmates as at November 29, 2025, including 892 awaiting trials, many for minor offences”.
He recommended expanding non-custodial sentencing, accelerating judicial processes, and deploying digital tools such as online hearings and stenography to fasten justice delivery to decongest courts and correctional facilities, stressing: “Justice delayed is justice denied,”
Etamesor also urged police academies to include human rights training into their curricula from the onset, not only after officers are deployed.
The Executive Director further condemned what he described as the “illegal and exploitative practices” of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, manifesting in alleged extortion of citizens through arbitrary billing and disconnections without due process.
Observing that such practices destroy human dignity and rob citizen’s of their economic rights, he called on the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to wake up to their oversight responsibilities.
He proposed a shift toward renewable energy generation for Ebonyi state, leveraging on the state’s river endowments, solar and other natural potentials to deliver affordable and reliable electricity.
Other issues addressed during the Press conference included increasing exploitation in the housing sector in the state and environmental degradation by miners, posing serious dangers to lives of citizens.
Stressing that the year’s theme underscores the urgent need to confront daily hardships that threaten citizens’ dignity, safety, and access to justice, Etamesor condemned the development whereby landlords and their agents in the state, now impose arbitrary charges and evict tenants at will, without notice.
He maintained that such practices jeopardize the right to housing, family stability and security, and called for legislative reforms to support monthly rent payments and regulate tenancy rights and processes.
Blaming quarry operators for degrading the environment and leaving open and abandoned pits which have become “death traps,” causing accidents, erosion, and the loss of farmlands, he called for stricter environmental enforcement and the establishment of community compensation funds to address damages caused by quarrying.
Speaking on access to justice, Etamesor said every effort should be made by government and all public spirited individuals to encourage alternative conflict resolution and enhanced justice delivery.
He appealed to the Ebonyi state government to urgently construct the road leading to the office of HRCRC which he said constitute a major obstacle, endangering individuals seeking help.
“Victims of abuse seeking help are sometimes injured or discouraged from reaching us.
“Access to justice becomes impossible when the path to help is itself dangerous,” he submitted.
Delivering the message of the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, the Ebonyi State Coordinator of the Commission, Christopher Okorie, noted that effective human rights protection requires collaboration among all state actors and non state actors: civil society, the private sector, and the general public.
Okorie who reeled out the Commission’s interventions in cases of right abuses in the state including witch-hunting and rescue of victims in some Ebonyi communities, however, lamented the absence of government-run shelters, describing it as a significant threat to victims’ safety.
“Let us build a nation where human rights are not aspirational ideals, but daily realities”, Okorie called.
Others who spoke, including the Chairman of the HRCRC Board and West African Regional representative of the St, Patrick’s Missionary society, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Iho, urged all concerned to join hands against human rights violations and abuse of vulnerable populations in Nigeria.
The commemoration coincided with the 30th Annivarsary of the National Human Rights Commission.
The even was later marked by three planting exercise across premises of some major government agencies in the state capital to symbolize collaboration, growth, resilience, and environmental justice.
Prominent among the CSOs which participated in the event were Development & Integrity Intervention Goal Foundation (DIG), Abraham’s Children’s Foundation, and Da’wah and Guidance Bureau of Nigeria, represented by Hajiya Saidatu Ajah.
