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The Nigerian Military has formally dismissed a Reuters report of alleged mass abortion carried out by the navy on victims of Boko Haram terrorism within the North-east.
The Chief of Military Employees, Farouk Yahaya, issued the denial Saturday in Abuja whereas testifying earlier than a panel arrange by the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) to research the matter.
The panel is formally referred to as Particular Unbiased Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations within the Implementation of Counter Insurgency Operations within the North East (SIIP-North East).
Mr Yahaya, a lieutenant-general, stated the navy has a key aim of combating insurgents and restoring peace within the troubled area. It, subsequently, couldn’t have launched into the key abortion programme alleged within the Reuters report.
He denied the Reuters’ report of the abortion of 10,000 pregnancies, the bloodbath of kids and different allegations of Sexual and Gender-Based mostly Violence in opposition to the military.
He challenged the worldwide media outlet to substantiate the claims.
Although the Nigerian navy authorities had issued a press release to disclaim the story, Saturday was the primary time Mr Yahaya would publicly react to the difficulty.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Reuters in an investigative report printed in December 2022 alleged that the Nigerian navy operated a secret programme, terminating no less than 10,000 pregnancies of girls who had been free of Boko Haram terrorists within the troubled area.
It reported that the Nigerian navy since 2013 carried out “a secret, systematic and unlawful abortion program within the nation’s northeast, ending no less than 10,000 pregnancies amongst ladies and women” who had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.
The report triggered international outrage with the United Nations Secretary-Normal, Antonio Guterres, calling on the Nigerian authorities to start a radical investigation and “speedy remedial actions and accountability measures.”
Heeding the decision, the NHRC on 7 February, arrange an investigative panel to probe the allegations.
Particularly, the panel is remitted to research the allegations of compelled mass abortion on pregnant ladies by the troops of the Nigerian navy, as revealed within the investigation by Reuters final December.
The investigative panel is being chaired by a retired justice of the Supreme Court docket, Abdu Aboki.
Testimony
In his testimony on Saturday on the NHRC headquarters in Abuja, the Chief of Military Employees described the Reuters report as a fictional “novel”.
Mr Yahaya accused Reuters of appearing a script to decrease the navy’s “successes” in combating the insurgency that has led to 1000’s of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of individuals.
“We’re succeeding and never many are joyful that we’re succeeding, they can’t reverse our successes subsequently they garbage it. Generally, they’re enjoying different individuals’s scripts. We’re not Boko Haram terrorists, we’re skilled to be professionals and the coaching is steady,” the military chief added.
He stated the military operated beneath the rule of regulation as its actions had been being monitored by the NHRC and the general public.
Talking additional, he stated, “Perhaps they don’t know we’re working beneath the federal government. The Nationwide Human Rights Fee follows what’s being completed within the navy and what we’re doing is inside operation; we’re working in our nation. The military is Nigerian Military and we aren’t like Boko Haram that doesn’t function beneath code of conduct.”
“As well as, warning is planted in our head that the individuals you’re combating are Nigerians and there’s no coverage like that, quite the coverage now we have is respect for human beings…the allegation is simply ‘grammar’; our enterprise is to defeat the insurgents,” Mr Yahaya said.
Testifying additional earlier than the seven-member panel, the navy chief stated it was anticipated of Reuters to help the efforts to battle and defeat Boko Haram as a substitute of adopting this “textbook answer” that doesn’t replicate the fact of the state of affairs within the North-east.
Requested by the panel’s secretary, Hilary Ogbonna, to elucidate Reuters’ report that troopers massacred many youngsters perceived to have been fathered by Boko Haram, Mr Yahaya retorted, “That is laughable as a result of even when there may be stigma connected to such youngsters, is it the military that can cease the stigma?”
Panel sitting
This newspaper reported that in February, the investigative panel started sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State, the epicentre of the Insurgency in North-east Nigeria.
The panel, upon arriving in Maiduguri, had its first sitting on the medical facility complicated of the Maimalari Cantonment, the place Reuters reported that a lot of the abortions had been carried out.
The panel engaged the commanding officer of the navy hospital, Adeniyi Ogunsakin, a lieutenant colonel.
Mr Ogunsakin, who heads all navy medical services beneath the 7 Division Nigeria military, was quoted to have denied the Reuters report.
Mr Ogunsakin had stated the allegations of mass abortions “are mere claims that may be made by anyone which has no basis or proof to again it up.”
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