The Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation in Counter-Insurgency Operations in North-East Nigeria (SIIP-North East) on Monday submitted its report to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which set it up to investigate Reuter’s allegations of human rights violations in the North Eastern region of the country by the Nigerian Army.
In the report of the seven-member panel chaired by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdu Aboki, received by the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Dr Tony Ojukwu, SAN, the panel absolved the Nigerian military of the allegation of forced illegal abortions and massacre of children as alleged by Reuters, a foreign media organisation.
According to the report presented by the General Counsel to the Panel, Mr Hillary Ogbona, who is also the Senior Human rights adviser to the NHRC boss, “The panel did not find evidence that the Nigerian Armed Forces committed a systematic, secret, or policy-driven abortion in the North-East to the tune of 10,000 abortions.
“There was no evidence before the panel to prove that”, he said, adding however that “The panel found probability, based on witness testimony, that the NGO Medicines San Frontiers (MSF) was engaged in abortion procedures for some years in the North East through the medical facilities that it operated”.
For smuggled, poisoned, and shot, which is the second report, Ogbona said, the panel did not find the Military culpable for the massacre of children in Kukawa, in Dasarua, in Abagano, and in many parts of New Marte.
The report said the panel found the military culpable of infanticide and the killing of community members in the village of Adisawe, in Marte local government area of Borno State, on the 16th of June, 2016, and that the panel received witness testimonies, including those of survivors and relatives of the deceased.
In terms of the war on women, the report said the panel did not find that the Nigerian Armed Forces specifically targeted women in military camps or in IDP camps and added also that it did not find evidence of that.
“Rather, the panel found evidence from military sources and civilian sources, especially women and girls who are still even in military custody and who have left internally displaced camps, that the military took care of them while they were in camps. A lot of them gave birth to children while they were in camps as well, and we saw evidence of all of those”, the report added.
Ogbona said the panel’s report would not only stand the test of time in terms of its thoroughness but also in terms of the fact that the panel made almost good of a hopeless situation.
…Details later.
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