THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday was requested by the military high command to independently look into a number of complaints made against the armed forces by an international news agency.
Gen. Lucky Irabor, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), when he met Tony Ojukwu, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, at the commission’s Abuja headquarters stated that the demand was crucial because the military had nothing to hide.
In a recent story, the international news agency Reuters stated that the Nigerian military had forcibly aborted the pregnancies of Boko Haram women who had been arrested and held.
The organization further asserted that military authorities extrajudicially killed terrorists’ children out of concern that they might become like their parents.
Irabor, however, argued that only the allegations of abortion and infanticide committed against select mothers and children in the North East needed to be specifically looked into.
He emphasized that the Reuters report was “evil” and intended to disparage the efforts of the military to suppress the insurgency and increase security throughout the nation, particularly in the North East.
Ojukwu responded by stating that the commission’s probe would adhere to predetermined standards and be open and transparent.
