NHRC, AccountabilityLab Seek Coordinated Response to Digital Rights Violations

..Agencies, CSOs move to bridge complaint-resolution gaps, restore confidence in access to justice

By: Michael Mike

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and AccountabilityLab Nigeria have called for stronger inter-agency collaboration and coordinated mechanisms to ensure that victims of digital rights violations can access justice promptly and effectively.

The call was made on Wednesday at a multi-stakeholder convening on “Building a Coordinated Response System for Digital Rights Violations,” where representatives of government institutions, regulatory agencies, civil society organisations, the legal profession, the media, and the telecommunications and technology sectors examined gaps in the response to rights abuses in Nigeria’s digital space.

The Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Chief Tony Ojukwu, said the meeting had become necessary amid the growing importance of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem to civic engagement, investigative journalism, democratic dialogue and the exercise of constitutional freedoms.

Ojukwu questioned whether existing mechanisms were sufficiently coordinated to respond swiftly, effectively and accountably when citizens’ rights were violated within or through the digital environment.

He noted that while civil society organisations documented abuses, the media exposed systemic violations and legal practitioners initiated legal proceedings, responses often remained fragmented, with unclear referral pathways, inadequate procedures for preserving digital evidence and delays in handling high-stakes cases.

The NHRC Executive Secretary stressed that constitutional protections for human dignity, privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly and association applied equally online and offline.

He further reaffirmed the Commission’s statutory mandate under the National Human Rights Commission Act, as amended, to receive and investigate human rights violations, facilitate remedies for victims, examine laws and policies against human rights standards, and collaborate with government and non-governmental institutions.

Ojukwu said the Commission was prepared to serve as an anchor for the proposed collaborative framework but emphasised that sustainable protection of digital rights required the collective participation of law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, regulatory authorities, civil society organisations, technology platforms and telecommunications providers.

The Executive Secretary urged stakeholders to ensure that government actions relating to cybercrime, national security and online harms remained consistent with constitutional safeguards, due process and international human rights obligations.

He referenced the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Amendment Act of 2024, including the revision of Section 24, and called for rights-based scrutiny of the enforcement of the law.

Ojukwu cautioned against the possibility of statutory enforcement inadvertently restricting constitutionally protected speech, access to information and civic space.

According to him, the need to maintain this balance would become increasingly important ahead of the 2027 electoral cycle, when the digital environment is expected to play a significant role in political discourse, voter mobilisation and public accountability.

He said the protection of democratic processes must go hand in hand with safeguarding the constitutional rights of citizens participating in them.

Ojukwu urged participants to ensure that the outcome of the meeting translated into practical institutional arrangements rather than remaining a collection of recommendations.

He identified eight priority areas for consensus, including the standardisation of complaint-intake mechanisms and the establishment of clearly defined referral pathways between relevant institutions.

Other areas include fast-track channels for urgent or high-risk threats; uniform criteria for documenting and preserving digital evidence; safeguards for complainants, victims and whistleblowers against reprisals; secure and privacy-compliant information sharing; clear triggers for statutory, judicial or public-interest action; and the use of trends in reported violations to inform legislative and policy reforms.

The Executive Secretary also highlighted the proposed integration of the Ripoti platform into the coordinated response architecture, noting that the platform should serve a purpose beyond documenting complaints.

He said it should facilitate the transition from reporting to referral, referral to remedy, and individual cases to broader structural reforms, while ensuring strict data protection safeguards for affected individuals.

Ojukwu called for the establishment of institutional focal points, secure communication channels, quarterly review mechanisms, joint advocacy initiatives and sustained collaboration with civil society organisations to ensure continuity beyond the convening.

He maintained that the success of the initiative should be measured by tangible outcomes, including whether victims could obtain swift, safe and effective justice, institutions could work together seamlessly, and recurring violations could lead to lasting reforms.

The Country Director of AccountabilityLab Nigeria, Odeh Friday, said the organisation had observed that a significant number of complaints relating to human rights violations were being received but often failed to progress to meaningful resolution.

He said the situation had contributed to a growing reluctance among some Nigerians to report violations, as they feared that their complaints would not result in justice.

“Most Nigerians are no more comfortable in even bringing these, their complaints out because they feel they’ll never get justice,” he said, explaining the need for stronger partnerships capable of restoring public confidence in complaint-handling mechanisms.

According to him, the workshop was designed to create a system through which citizens could understand where to report complaints, how their cases would be handled and which institutions were responsible for addressing specific violations.

He said AccountabilityLab’s work at the grassroots level had enabled it to build relationships and trust with civil society organisations and communities, providing an avenue for receiving reports that might otherwise remain unaddressed.

Odeh identified several issues reported through digital platforms, including digital rights violations, loan shark activities, identity theft and misinformation.

He noted, however, that the existence of complaints did not automatically translate into access to justice, particularly for individuals who lacked the resources or knowledge required to pursue legal remedies through the courts.

Odeh said the partnership with the NHRC was intended to establish an inter-agency coordination mechanism involving relevant government institutions and civil society organisations.

He identified the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Police National Cybercrime Centre among the institutions whose participation could support the resolution of complaints, alongside other agencies with relevant mandates.

He explained that the objective was to create a system in which complaints could be presented to a coordinated network of stakeholders, allowing participants to determine the appropriate institution to handle each matter and the steps required to achieve resolution.

“First thing for us is that understanding that if people have to get justice from the grassroots or from anywhere they’re complaining, we need to partner with government because most of the time we work on the ground,” he said.

According to him, the proposed mechanism would help clarify the role of first responders, establish appropriate referral channels and provide support to victims throughout the complaint-resolution process.

Odeh further explained that Ripoti was designed as a reporting platform that could help direct complainants to the appropriate government agencies and support them in navigating the justice process.

He said the platform would help identify where a complaint should be directed and facilitate engagement with relevant institutions to improve the possibility of resolution.

The initiative, he noted, was not intended to replace government institutions or judicial processes but to provide a bridge between citizens reporting violations and the agencies responsible for addressing them.

The AccountabilityLab representative emphasised the importance of ensuring that government agencies and civil society organisations understood their respective responsibilities within the proposed coordination system.

NHRC, AccountabilityLab Seek Coordinated Response to Digital Rights Violations

NAPTIP Moves to Strengthen Justice Chain Against Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling

By: Michael Mike

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has moved to strengthen Nigeria’s criminal justice chain against human trafficking and migrant smuggling, with a renewed focus on closing operational gaps between investigation, prosecution and judicial decision-making.

The initiative is coming against the backdrop of Nigeria’s strategic position in West Africa and its exposure to transnational organised crime, particularly human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Nigeria serves as a country of origin, transit and destination, a position that exposes the country to complex operational and judicial challenges requiring a coordinated response across the entire criminal justice system.

Speaking in Abuja on Monday at the opening of a capacity-building workshop on “Strengthening the Criminal Justice Chain in Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Cases,” the Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, said a stronger justice chain was critical to ensuring that perpetrators were effectively investigated, prosecuted and brought to justice while victims received adequate protection.

Bello said the workshop was designed to bring together investigators, prosecutors, judicial officers, intelligence analysts and law enforcement practitioners to strengthen cooperation and build an integrated response to the two forms of transnational organised crime.

She said human trafficking and migrant smuggling networks exploit human vulnerability, undermine national security, violate fundamental human rights and threaten economic stability across national boundaries.

According to her, the increasing sophistication of criminal networks made it necessary to strengthen the entire criminal justice chain rather than focus on isolated stages of enforcement.

“A criminal justice system is only as strong as its weakest link. If an investigation is compromised at the intelligence stage, prosecution becomes difficult; if evidence collection is flawed, justice is delayed or denied; and if judicial proceedings lack specialised operational insights into trafficking dynamics, dangerous criminals return to the streets while victims remain unprotected,” Bello said.

The workshop, she explained, seeks to improve interaction among investigators, prosecutors and judicial authorities while strengthening the effective implementation of existing procedures.

Its overall objective, she said, is to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice chain in human trafficking and migrant-smuggling cases by improving coordination among stakeholders, enhancing the quality of case files and strengthening the connection between investigation, prosecution and judicial decision-making.

The initiative is also expected to strengthen institutional coordination and inter-agency cooperation and improve the overall effectiveness of Nigeria’s criminal justice response to trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Bello said the workshop would help close operational gaps from the initial detection of cases and victim-centred investigations through intelligence gathering and prosecution to final adjudication.

She added that the training would strengthen the ability of participating agencies to work together in tackling the convergence of trafficking and migrant smuggling with financial crimes, cybercrime and cross-border security threats.

Participants, she said, would also refine strategies for financial tracking, digital evidence collection and international legal cooperation, including Mutual Legal Assistance.

The NAPTIP boss stressed that the initiative would reinforce a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach to justice, ensuring that victims were protected throughout judicial proceedings and not re-traumatised in the process of seeking justice.

Bello said NAPTIP had maintained an aggressive, multi-dimensional strategy anchored on its 5P approach of Policy, Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership.

She disclosed that the agency had secured hundreds of convictions against human traffickers, with its legal teams continuing to pursue maximum sentences as a deterrent to organised criminal syndicates.

She said thousands of victims, including women, children and young men, had been rescued from domestic exploitation, forced labour, sexual servitude, organ-harvesting networks and digital exploitation centres both within Nigeria and internationally.

According to her, survivors receive psychosocial support, medical care, vocational training and reintegration assistance through NAPTIP’s specialised shelters across the country.

Bello said the agency had also expanded its intelligence operations in response to the growing use of digital platforms by traffickers, enabling it to track online trafficking syndicates, fake job-placement schemes and cyber-enabled exploitation networks operating in urban centres and across borders.

She added that specialised joint operations with sister security agencies, border-control authorities and international law-enforcement partners had enabled NAPTIP to intercept transnational syndicates and disrupt smuggling corridors across West Africa and Europe.

The agency, she said, had equally updated operational guidelines, strengthened standard operating procedures for victim identification and enhanced evidence-gathering techniques to ensure that investigations met international standards.

However, Bello warned that the achievements could not justify complacency, given the evolving tactics of organised criminal networks.

She said continuous innovation, institutional adaptation and deeper collaboration across the criminal justice pipeline remained necessary to sustain the fight against trafficking and migrant smuggling.

EU-backed criminal justice intervention

The capacity-building activity is being implemented within the framework of the Common Operational Partnership (COP Nigeria), carried out by CIVIPOL in collaboration with the Fundación para la Internacionalización de las Administraciones Públicas (FIAP), under the Support to Migration Governance (Component 3) project in Nigeria.

The project is funded by the European Union in partnership with the Nigerian authorities and is being developed in coordination with FIAP’s activities in Nigeria, particularly initiatives aimed at strengthening migration governance and combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Bello expressed NAPTIP’s appreciation to the European Union for its sustained support under the Support to Migration Governance project, saying its investment in Nigeria’s migration-management and counter-trafficking frameworks reflected a commitment to global peace, security and human dignity.

She commended CIVIPOL for its technical expertise and leadership in implementing COP Nigeria, while also appreciating FIAP for its partnership and coordination in strengthening governance, justice and anti-trafficking structures in Nigeria.

The DG further thanked sister security agencies, judicial officers, civil society organisations and other resource persons for their participation and commitment to the fight against human trafficking.

Bello charged participants to use the workshop to build stronger professional networks and partnerships that would extend beyond the duration of the training.

“You represent the frontline defence of our nation’s criminal justice system against exploitation,” she told participants.

She urged them to engage actively, challenge assumptions and share best practices from their respective institutions, stressing that the knowledge and skills acquired would directly influence Nigeria’s capacity to investigate, prosecute and dismantle trafficking and migrant-smuggling networks.

She reminded participants that behind every case file, legal precedent and investigative report was a human life seeking justice and protection.

“Together, through a strengthened criminal justice chain, we will deny traffickers a safe haven, bring perpetrators to justice, and uphold the dignity of every individual,” Bello said.

She subsequently declared the capacity-building workshop officially open.

NAPTIP Moves to Strengthen Justice Chain Against Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling

FG moves to operationalise 112 national emergency number

By Zagazola Makama

The Federal Government has commenced steps to operationalise the 112 national emergency number as a single, toll-free channel through which Nigerians can access emergency services across the country.

The move followed a directive by Vice-President Kashim Shettima during a stakeholders’ meeting on the National Emergency Number 112 Project in Abuja on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Shettima directed relevant government agencies to develop a comprehensive operational roadmap and standard operating procedures for the nationwide rollout of the emergency number.

The Federal Government has consequently constituted a committee comprising the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other relevant agencies to finalise the framework for consideration and formal endorsement by the National Economic Council (NEC).

The NEC had recently approved 112 as Nigeria’s single universal toll-free emergency number, replacing the fragmented emergency response lines currently operated by different agencies.

The initiative is aimed at eliminating delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks while providing citizens with easier access to rapid assistance during emergencies, including fires, road crashes, medical emergencies and security incidents.

Speaking at the meeting, Shettima urged members of the committee to draw from global best practices in developing the operational framework and ensure that the project moves from policy approval to practical implementation.

He charged the stakeholders to finalise the roadmap and standard operating procedures for presentation to the NEC, stressing the importance of making tangible progress.

“Let’s make progress so that whatever time we have spent here is worth spending,” the Vice-President said, while assuring stakeholders that the Federal Government would provide the resources required to drive the process.

He said adequate funding would be made available once the project progressed to the implementation stage.

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, expressed the full support of the Nigeria Police Force for the adoption of 112 as the country’s unified national emergency number.

Disu described the initiative as a significant step towards providing Nigerians with a simple and reliable means of accessing emergency assistance.

He said that during emergencies such as armed attacks, road crashes, fire outbreaks, medical crises or kidnapping incidents, citizens often face the additional challenge of determining which agency to contact.

According to him, the 112 system would provide a single access point through which an emergency call could be directed to the appropriate response agency.

Earlier, the Personal Assistant to the President on e-Governance in the Office of the Vice-President, Mrs Lydia Aina, said Nigeria’s emergency response system currently operates across multiple agencies, platforms and jurisdictions.

She explained that the fragmented structure often affects how emergencies are received, coordinated and responded to.

Aina said the objective was to move from the existing fragmented system to a coordinated and eventually fully integrated national emergency response framework.

She stressed that the success of the 112 initiative would depend not only on the emergency number itself but also on the people, agencies, operational standards and systems required to make it functional when citizens place emergency calls.

“Our job now is to turn it into an actual working programme with milestones,” she said.

According to her, six immediate priorities have been identified, beginning with governance and a clear delineation of responsibilities among participating agencies.

Other stakeholders at the meeting pledged their support for the initiative, including the Director-General of NEMA, Mrs Zubaida Umar; Corps Marshal of FRSC, Shehu Mohammed; and Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, among others.

The Federal Government’s move is expected to strengthen coordination among emergency response agencies, reduce response delays and provide Nigerians with a more accessible mechanism for seeking urgent assistance.

If successfully implemented nationwide, the 112 system could provide a unified gateway linking citizens to police, fire, medical, road safety, disaster management and other emergency response services.

The initiative is therefore being positioned as a major step towards building a faster, more coordinated and citizen-centred emergency response system in Nigeria.

FG moves to operationalise 112 national emergency number