NIGERIANS URGED TO UPHOLD HUMAN RIGHTS

Immediate past Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Osita Izunaso, has called on Nigerians to imbibe the habit of showing respect to human rights. Izunaso who chaired the national annual lecture of the Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday in Abuja, noted that human rights is a very special ingredient to democracy.

He said that Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution clearly spelt out the human rights implications of the society as it concerns our country, adding that 'whatever one does without respecting the human right, one is violating the provisions of the constitution, as well as not helping the overall developmental growth of our country.

'Let's take the police for example. Today, if you talk about the police arresting somebody, detaining the person unlawfully, it is a violation of human rights because what the law states clearly is that when you arrest a person, whatever is the matter, you do your investigation and prosecute.

'If you do that, you are doing what the law allows but if you keep somebody unnecessarily, it is a violation of human rights.

So, just as I have used police as an example, virtually in everything that we do, we must make sure that we do not violate anybody's human right because it is a very important aspect of our constitution and also a very important aspect of our democratic experience,' Izunaso stated.

On the discrimination in upholding human rights, Izunaso said that human right should not be a respecter of persons, a respecter of who has more money than the other but a respecter of everybody.'If you violate any provisions of human rights, you should be prosecuted accordingly so that the law can take its full course.