NHRC: 84 Persons Witnessed So Far on Reuters Allegation

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has disclosed that 84 witnesses have so far given testimonies to the panel saddled with the duty of investigating the allegation of the international media organisation, Reuters, against the Nigerian Army of involvement in abortion of 10,000 pregnancies, massive killing of children and deliberate violation of rights of women and girls in its counter-insurgency operation in the North East.

The panel after visits to the North East to take testimonies and conduct on the ground investigations in the troubled region, has resumed its work in Abuja, where further testimonies were being collected.

A senior human rights adviser to Chief Tony Ojukwu, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Hillary Ogbonna, who doubles as the Secretary, Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the counter Insurgency Operations in the North East (SIIP:NE), said, the Reuters report indicated that 40 soldiers, most of whom were officers, were interviewed in the course of the reports.

“December last year, Reuters published reports alleging abortion of ten thousand pregnancies, infanticide and other forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence against the Nigeria Military but the military has since denied the allegations, saying it was a deliberate attempt to rubbish the counter insurgency operation,” he said.

Ogbonna noted that the latest report highlighted how Reuters arrived at their publications and the allegations against the Nigeria Military in their counter insurgency operations in the North East.

According to him, the report which was a follow-up to the first reports released by Reuters last December was released on the 19th of April and was named Abortion Assault II.

Meanwhile, Colonel Yakubu Ibrahim of the Nigerian Defence College, who was at a time in charge of a battalion in the Northeast theatre of operation,  said the allegations of Reuters were laughable.

Ibrahim said the story of Reuters is a fiction, adding that, when he read the report, he thought the writer was mistaking Nigeria for somewhere else. Also, the Force Commander, United Nations mission to South-Sudan, Major General Benjamin Sawyer, urged the investigative panel to everything within its power to unravel the matter; saying the military has a key goal of combating insurgency and restoring peace in the troubled region, and therefore could not have embarked on secrete acts alleged in the Reuters report.

“What they have written is completely false, misleading and degrading to the image of Nigerians and the Nigerian Army despite what the military has done to restore normalcy in restive regions,” he said.

Also testifying, Retired Major General Jame Komolafe, Former Commander, 21 Brigade, North East, described the Reuters report as deliberate falsehood circulated to rubbish the integrity of the military, adding that the military was law abiding and no military medical facility would subject itself to such illicit medical practice.

The panel, chaired by a retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul-Aboki, was officially known as Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the implementation of counter insurgency operations in the North East.