The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Chidi Odinkalu, has advised victims of bomb blasts in Nigeria to organise themselves into an association or legal entity which would give them a common voice to push for their rights

Odinkalu, who received the representatives of the victims who came to submit a petition at the NHRC office in Abuja, pointed out that many victims of bomb blasts in Nigeria were suffering without care and observed that there is need to formulate established protocols for managing cases of bomb blast victims.

“You need to give yourselves a voice by organizing an association; this will push the federal government to listen to you,” he told his guest

The NHRC chairman said that it was “lamentable that despite the existence of a Victims Support Fund, thousands of bomb victims in Nigeria were suffering without care or support.”

Odinkalu also advised the victims to compile necessary records including medical reports and evidence of bills paid for treatment to enable the commission make a case for them.

The victims who submitted a petition to the commission complained that they had been abandoned by the federal government.

“We have been neglected and abandoned by the Federal Government as it has failed to keep …its promise of taking care of our medical bills, a promise made by the President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan at every visit he made to the scenes of the blasts and to the hospitals to visit victims of the bomb blasts,” the blast victims lamented.

They said further in the petition signed by Kayode Olatunji that many of the survivors of bomb blasts around the country have since died because of the neglect of government as they could not cope with their medical bill.

“Many underwent surgical operations in other hospitals after the initial hospitals at which they were hospitalised withdrew from handling their cases,” they added, while urging the NHRC to help in ensuring that the government fulfilled promises made to them.

The federal government on July 14, 2014, announced the constitution of the Committee on Victims Support Fund in a bid to enhance the support for victims of insurgency and terror attacks across the country.

A retired General and former Defence Minister,  Theophilus Danjuma, was appointed as chairman while Fola Adeola, banker and one-time vice presidential aspirant of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, is deputy chairman.

The committee also has several wealthy Nigerians including Mohammed Indimi, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Sani Dauda, Folorunsho Alakija, Cosmas Maduka, Jim Ovia, Wale Tinubu, Sani Sidi, and Tony Omenyi.as members.

Others are Salisu Fagge, representing Nigerian Police Force; Sayana Yusuf, representing Department of State Services; Uche Secondus, PDP deputy national chairman (South); Tijani Tunsah, APC deputy national chairman (North); representative of Christian Association of Nigeria, CA; Rerpresentative of Jamaatul Nasril Islam (JNI); and Nkechi Mba, representing National Council of Women Societies.

The committee was established to mobilize resources and administer appropriate support to victims of insurgency and Boko Haram terror activities across the country by identifying sources and ways of raising sustainable funding to support them, developing appropriate strategies for the fund raising, ascertaining the persons, communities, facilities and economic assets affected by terrorist activities and advising government on all matters necessary or incidental to support victims.

The victims however allege abandonment by the authorities, stating that the federal government has not met their demands as expected despite the huge funds raised in their name.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has revealed that at least 16,470 officially registered internally displaced persons, IDP, are presently living in different camps across several states in the country while the National Commission for Refugees, NCFR, recently made data available to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, IDMC, showing that as many as 3.3 million people have been internally displaced in the country by violence, including at least 250,000 people who have fled armed conflict perpetrated by Boko Haram.

By some estimates, the NCFR estimate of 250,000 persons displaced by Boko Haram insurgency might actually be double that figure.