The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, in Abia State said it received 1,238 written complaints on human rights abuses from January 2024 to date.
The state coordinator of NHRC, Uche Nwokocha, gave the figure on Monday in Umuahia during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, GBV.
Nwokocha said that the number of the abused persons would have been more than 5,000, if those who walked into the commission’s office to complain or did so through phone calls were to be included.
NHRC, in conjunction with National Orientation Agency, marched through major streets of Umuahia campaigning against GBV, saying that the written complaints were mostly about civil liberties, such as abuses by security agents and GBV.
Also, Nwokocha stated that the commission received five complaints on rape, but decried the bottlenecks faced in prosecuting the cases, including lack of more judges in Abia State Judiciary.
She futher disclosed that her office had seven GBV-related cases in court, but is yet to secure any convictions because of delays in the judicial processes.