Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, has tasked the federal government to ensure the full implementation of human rights laws in Nigeria.
Falana said this at a Capacity Development Retreat for the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) with support from the National Endowment For Democracy (NED).
He said that although Nigeria has one of the best human right laws in the world, the implementation has been very poor.
Falana listed some of the laws to include African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which contained political and civil rights, social economic rights and Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
He said Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Child Rights Act and Disabilities Act were all good laws.
Falana said some of the laws provide that suspects were not bound to make statements without consulting their lawyers or relations.
He said that the laws stated that confessional statements must be recorded, to prevent situations where suspects would claim that they were tortured to make statements.
“The Anti-Toture Act of 2017 makes it impossible to torture people to make statements, if anybody is tortured in Nigeria today the penalty is 25 years imprisonment with no option of fine,” he said.
Also, the Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Mr Clement Nwankwo said that there were issues of human rights interest in the country adding that the House Committee has a special role to play to draw attention and help resolve some of the issues.
