Defence Headquarters has organised a training for troops of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) on human rights violation.
Declaring the training open in Jos, the OPSH Commander, Maj.-Gen. Abdusalam Abubakar, described the training as a mechanism toward preventing violation of civilians’ rights by troops.
Abubakar, who doubles as the General Officer Commanding 3 Division of the Nigerian Army, Rukuba, near Jos, said that OPSH troops had undergone trainings on human management from military institutions and civil society organisations.
He explained that the exercise was in fulfillment of the Chief of Defence Staff’s (CDS) resolve to improve the professional capability of military personnel on internal security operations across the country.
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He added that the CDS vision had been aptly captured in the training directive to all formations under the guidance of the Chief of Army Staff.
“These trainings have boosted the capacity of personnel during internal security operations, where troops engage civilians on regular basis.
“Military personnel deployed to OPSH have been inundated on the need to continually operate within the ambit of the law and with maximum respect for the rights of innocent civilians.
“So, what we are doing here is in furtherance of the need to regularly remind our personnel to be civil during peacekeeping missions.”
The commander urged the participants to educate their colleagues who didn’t participate in the training, adding that such move would ensure that the knowledge gained trickles down to other colleagues.
Earlier, the Special Adviser on Human Rights to the CDS, Retired Air Commodore Oluwole Akisanya, disclosed that the exercise was to improve the operational effectiveness of military personnel in a joint environment.
In a lecture on “Protection of Civilians”, the Guest Speaker, Maj. Abba Goni, said that the training was important to troops of OPSH,
owing to the people-centric nature of their operations.
He called on the troops to ensure selective protection of civilians during conflictd, stressing that no intensity of military operations would justify unlawful killing of civilians.
Another Guest Speaker, Lovina Abbah, a Human Rights Lawyer, who delivered a lecture on “Torture and Cruel Treatment”, said that by respecting human rights, personnel would gain the confidence of the civil populace.
She said “no law permits the use of torture to extract information from detainees.”
She urged participants to embrace forensic method of investigation to determine the facts of cases under investigation.
