The Special Independent Investigative Panel resumed hearing on Friday, May 12 to probe into the alleged Human Rights Violations by officers of the Armed Forces during counter-insurgency operations in the North East.
So far, about nine top military officers have testified before the 7-man panel of experts during the third batch of sitting
Appearing before the seven-man panel led by a former justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Aboki, the Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army Amour Corp (NAAC) Headquarters Bauchi and former Garrison Commander, 7 Div Garrison Maiduguri, Brigadier General Haruna Garba denied an allegation by Reuters suggesting that the military has over a decade carried out mass abortion in the North East as part of plans to annihilate the offspring of Boko Haram fighters.
Brigadier Garba said there is no way the military could have been involved in such crimes having been in the forefront of trying to restore peace to the North east and other parts of the country.
According to him, the allegation is only intended to demoralize the military personnel in the theatre of war at a time when they seem to be gaining victory over the terrorist elements.
Also appearing on Friday before the panel to testify is the former Chief of Staff of the Military Multinational Joint Task Force, Brig. General Tuni Isah who describes the allegation as unimaginable.
He said the Nigerian Army is a professional organization which operates within the ambit of the law.
During his own testimony, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor said that human rights violations allegations levelled against the Nigerian military by Reuters, were not only shocking but also spurious.
General Irabor said the allegations came as a rude shock that someone could orchestrate such a report.
He said, ”There are strange allusions, if they say we want to stop the regeneration of Boko Haram children, on what grounds?
”We are not responsible for the stigmatisation of the women who bore children by Boko Haram insurgents, we don’t know them”.
SpyeTV News reports that the seven-man panel led by a former justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Aboki was inaugurated on February 8, 2023, ffollowingeReuters reports in 2022 alleging that the military carried out a massacre of children in the Northeast and through a clandestine operation terminated nothing less than 10,000 pregnancies of women who were either rescued from terrorists enclaves or married to them.
The media organization had claimed that the clandestine operation codenamed” OPERATION NO LIVING THINGS” was carried out by soldiers in the theatre of war as vengeance against the Boko Haram fighters and to ensure that the children of the terrorist fighters were wiped out.