Saturday, January 25, 2025 - The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, on Friday dismissed allegations that the Nigerian military was involved in forcefully aborting pregnancies among women impregnated by Boko Haram insurgents in Northern Nigeria.
A Reuters report from February 2022 had alleged that the military
conducted a secret abortion program as part of its counter-insurgency efforts
in the northeast, terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and
girls.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, General Musa refuted
these claims, describing them as baseless and part of a smear campaign
orchestrated by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ulterior
motives.
“I wish you could call them now and ask that question. I was the theatre
commander when this accusation surfaced, and it was deeply upsetting. I
realized most of these organizations do not mean well for us,” he said.
He argued that such allegations often emerge when the military makes
significant progress, aiming to tarnish its image and demoralize troops.
“Whenever we are succeeding, they throw this at us to make us look bad. The
question is, what is their intent? Are they unhappy with our success?”
General Musa recalled discussing the matter with the then Chief of
Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, emphasizing the need for an investigation
to clear the air.
“When this came up, I told General Irabor we should investigate it
thoroughly because I was confident nothing like this happened,” he stated.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) later constituted an
independent panel to probe the allegations. According to General Musa, the
panel found no evidence of wrongdoing by the military. He also noted that the
military granted the panel unrestricted access during the investigation, which
lasted over a year.
“The NHRC committee investigated this for one and a half years, and I
was the first to testify in January 2023. They had complete access to go
wherever they wanted, and their report found no evidence of these claims,” he
said.
General Musa called for a public apology from those who made the
allegations, adding that the military had approached the Attorney General to
pursue legal action against the accusers.
He also questioned the silence of international organizations and local
NGOs, including the United Nations, over a decade if such actions had truly
occurred. “If we had been doing this for 10 years, as claimed, why didn’t these
organizations report it? Are they also complicit?”
General Musa further alleged that some NGOs involved in safe abortion
programs for over 10,000 Nigerians could have been the source of the report
cited by Reuters.
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