The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has started public hearing on six petitions it received from some civil servants in Ekiti State who said they were compulsorily retired.
The complaints before the commission also indicated that they were not paid their benefits after they were relieved of their jobs.
Speaking yesterday during the hearing, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu, said ordinarily, the commission treats cases of loss of labour rights and entitlements on individual basis unless if it is a group nature or it has the character of systemic violation.
He added that it was on that basis that the commission adopted the approach to listen to the complaints on the Ekiti State civil servants who were compulsorily retired.
He said the cases suggest discrimination, victimzation, lack of due process and unfairness. Ojukwu urged the petitioners and the representative of the state government to cooperate to achieve justice.
The representative of the Ekiti State government, Barrister Olawale Fapohunda, told the panel that it should be given one week to complete investigation and file reviews to come up with definite responses on the cases.
Meanwhile, the commission has condemned what it described as ‘impunity’ displayed by political parties across-board in the process of choosing candidates during the just concluded party primaries preceding the 2019 general elections.
The executive secretary of the commission said staff of the commission monitored the states and received complaints which indicated that most political parties did not conduct credible primaries, while some just selected candidates in an unfair manner.
He however called on INEC to stand against such impunity and reject results of any primary that was not monitored and witnessed by its staff.