Minister of information, Image: Vanguard
Nigeria's federal government has denied that the military is running a forced covert systematic and unlawful abortion service on women and girls abducted and raped by Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria's Northeast region.
Reuters on Wednesday reported that the Nigerian Army has operated an unlawful, routine, and covert abortion operation in the country's northeast at least since 2013, and from the dozens of witness reports and documents seen by Reuters, the operation involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been abducted and raped by Islamist militants.
Reacting to the report during a news conference in Abuja, Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed described the report as concocted and questioned the motives behind its timing and use of "unidentified sources” only as the basis for the story.
The minister said, “As you are all aware, an international news agency recently reported that the Nigerian military, in their fight against Boko Haram/ISWAP, has been running a secret, systematic and illegal abortion program in the Northeast, ostensibly – according to the news agency – because ‘the children of insurgents are predestined, by the blood in their veins, to one day take up arms against the Nigerian government and society.
Aerial view of Maiduguri, Image: Reuters/Paul Carsten
"The story also claimed that 10,000 such abortions have been carried out from 2013 to date on women and girls.
“The news agency made this grave allegation without a scintilla of evidence, citing only anonymous sources and the reported review of phantom documents.”
"The agency claimed that its investigation was based on interviews with 33 women and girls to arrive at the bogus claim of 10,000 abortions. And in a further indication that the figure of abortions quoted was arbitrary or possibly conjured, the agency first put the figure at 12,000 before settling for 10,000.
“The Federal Government hereby categorically states that there is no ‘secret, systematic and illegal abortion program’ being run by our military in the Northeast or anywhere across the country.
"We also hereby reject the accusation of running an abortion program leveled at our military. We state categorically that this story is a scary instance of fake news and disinformation combined. The writers deserve an award in fiction writing.
“The question is: what’s the motive of this news agency and the usual suspects who have latched on to this story? Why is this so-called investigation coming at a time when our heroic men and women in uniform have been recording success after success, decimating the terrorists, rescuing abducted persons, and receiving hundreds of thousands of terrorists who have surrendered?
“For the record, the Nigerian military has rescued 11 Chibok girls with all their children, 2,018 other persons (comprising 339 adult males, 660 adult females, and 1019 children), while 82,645 persons, comprising 16,621 male fighters, 24,638 women and 41,386 children, have surrendered.
“The military has also neutralized 494 terrorists (note that this does not include terrorists neutralized through airstrikes and terrorists’ infighting).
"Why is this news agency not playing up this positive news but instead choosing to give prominence to a phantom abortion story?
“Is this a ploy to demoralize and distract our fighting forces? Is it a strategy to set the world against Nigeria and cut off the support that is critical to crushing terrorists? Only the news agency can answer these questions.
Image:SaharaReporters
“But we stand by our military, which has served meritoriously at home and regional and global peacekeeping operations from 1960 to date. We know that military operations in the Northeast are not arbitrary but based on the military’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Rules of Engagement (ROE), among others.
"Where any proven infraction or criminal act has been committed by any soldier, the law has always taken its course.
“But it is beyond the pale and downright dangerous to accuse a nation’s military, without any verifiable evidence, of massive illegal abortions and infanticide.
“I will like to once again alert the nation to the dangers posed by fake news and disinformation. I had a reason to speak on this at this forum when I warned that fake news and disinformation constitute a clear and present danger to the 2023 election.
"However, fake news and disinformation, if not checked, can also hurt our nation’s ongoing fight against terrorism,” Mohammed warned.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called on Nigerian authorities to thoroughly investigate the claims of widespread and coerced abortions allegedly carried out by the Nigerian army and take "immediate remedial actions and accountability measures," if necessary.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department also said the Biden administration was "deeply troubled."
"Our embassy in Abuja is seeking further information, including from the government of Nigeria and stakeholders working in this space," the spokesperson said. "
"We have encouraged the government of Nigeria to take the allegations seriously and to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation, and we will continue to do so," the spokesperson said.
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