The Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Borno, Hauwa Abubakar, says the state is not a war zone, contrary to insinuations in some quarters.

Ms Abubakar remarked in an interview with journalists at the sideline of the fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) National Validation Conference in Abuja.

The minister said there were challenges inhibiting tackling the issues of human rights abuse in the country, but the state government was not resting on its oars.

“But the truth is that Borno has been peaceful. Of course, we are still in the insurgency; it hasn’t stopped.

“So it is inevitable for us to hear one or two attacks here and there,” she said.

The commissioner recalled that a few years back, there were many internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri camps but that the state government had been able to relocate many of the IDPs back to their communities while some of the IDP camps had been closed down.

“That’s to tell you that we are on top of it, and all that we need is support, especially from the media, to show the effort the state government is doing in tackling all these issues because Borno State is not a war zone as a lot of people think,” she said.

She said the government was trying to uphold the rule of law, especially the provision of chapter 4 of the constitution about fundamental human rights to bring peace to the state.

Ms Abubakar said the kinetic approach to the war against Boko Haram by Governor Babagana Zulum-led government had yielded and is still yielding results.

Earlier, Abdulrahman Yakubu, Director of Civil and Political Rights, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said the essence of the event was for Nigeria to comply with UN guidelines by preparing its national report to the UN Human Rights Council under the mechanism of UPR.

Mr Yakubu said the guideline was that any country being reviewed and preparing its report must consult widely and broadly.

Joy Ezeilo, former UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, said Nigeria had done well on human rights issues in some areas and regressed in others.

(NAN)