*Reuters is engaging in "media or press-bullying”- DHQ
Nigeria's Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Abuja, has accused the Reuters news organization of trying to blackmail the Nigerian military through what it called "mercenary journalism," by claiming that the military has been carrying out an illegal, systematic, and covert abortion program in the North-East of the country since 2013.
This information was released in a statement on Saturday in Abuja by Maj.-Gen. Jimmy Akpor, Director of Defence Information.
Akpor said that the news organization said it was working on several articles about alleged activities of the Nigerian military during the 13-year conflict between the government and Islamist insurgents in Nigeria's North-East.
He said that Reuters had indicated that the reports would center on an alleged military program that involved forcing abortions on women and girls who had been kidnapped and impregnated by Islamist terrorists.
Image:Vanguard
According to Akpor, Reuters also said the stories would include the alleged killing of children by the Nigerian military as part of counter-insurgency efforts.
Akpor further said that the Reuters report would claim that the Nigerian military has been carrying out an illegal, systematic, and covert abortion program in the North-East of the country since 2013 that has resulted in the termination of at least 12,000 pregnancies among women and girls.
The defense spokesman added that Reuters claimed that numerous children were shot, poisoned, strangled, or driven over by vehicles during army-led operations.
Among other grave allegations, Akpor continued, the Reuters article was to claim that soldiers picked out infants and toddlers for execution after saving their mothers and the children from Islamist militants.
The news source, according to Akpor, also claimed that the main reason for performing the abortions was allegedly the fear that because of the blood in their veins, the offsprings of Islamist militants would one day follow in their fathers' footsteps and take up arms to oppose the Nigerian government and society.
Reacting to the allegations, the defense spokesman said “wickedness really runs in the veins of some people and it surely runs deep in the veins of the Reuters team that concocted such evil for interrogation”.
Akpor described the Reuters' series of stories as a collection of insults against Nigerians and their culture.
“Irrespective of the security challenges we face as a nation, Nigerian peoples and cultures still cherish life.
“Hence, Nigerian military personnel has been raised, bred, and further trained to protect lives, even at their own risk especially, when it concerns the lives of children, women, and the elderly.
“This much is reflected in Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs), Concepts of Operations, Rules of Engagements (ROEs), and other documents that guide military operations.
“Hence, nowhere has the Nigerian military operated – Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, [Darfur] Sudan, Gambia, and Guinea Bissau, amongst others — that there was any trace or allegation of infanticide.
“The Nigerian military will not, therefore, contemplate such evil of running a systematic and illegal abortion program anywhere and anytime and surely not on our soil.
“The Nigerian military will not also deliberately plan to target children during its counterinsurgency operations or other operations, both within and outside Nigeria,” he said.
The defense spokesman asserted that the Reuters team must have received training in and supported the scorched-earth and inhumane policies that colonialists used during the colonial era and the struggles for independence in places like Indo-China, Malaysia, Algeria, and other countries.
According to Akpor, under the colonialists' "scorched-earth" policy, towns and crops were burned, and inhumane programs resulted in the killing of children, women, the old, and innocent people.
He added that the Reuters team could not attribute the evil of infanticide to the Nigerian military and the Nigerian people because Nigerians, and by extension, the Nigerian military, were not cruel.
“It took Reuters 13 solid years to craft an allegation of infanticide against the Nigerian military and the Nigerian nation.
“This shows that a news agency as ‘renowned’ as Reuters is itself complicit for failing in its mandate to draw attention, to inform the public about supposed occurrences that offend not only the laws of armed conflict but also international humanitarian law,” he said.
According to the defense spokesman, from July 2021 to the present, 82,064 Boko Haram fighters and members of their families have turned themselves into Operation Hadin Kai troops.
Out of this total, he said that 16,553 were active male fighters, 24,446 were women, and 41,065 were children, adding that the Borno Government provided camps for each family so that the kids could remain with their parents.
“In the same camp are thousands of pregnant women and nursing mothers. A total of 262 babies were born within four months (94 in July, 98 in August, 60 in September, and 11 in October 2022.
“This figure comprises 150 female and 112 male children. The children were neither aborted nor yanked from their mothers and killed, as may have been the joy of Reuters.
“Let us now spotlight the rescued Chibok girls who were kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram terrorists in 2014. A total of 11 of the Chibok girls were rescued this year 2022.
“Hauwa Joseph with her child, Mary Dauda with her child, and Ruth Bitrus were rescued in June 2022. Troops also rescued Kauna Luka with her child and Hanatu Musa with her two children in July 2022. In the same vein, Aisha Grema with her four-year-old child, and Falmata Lawal were rescued in August 2022.
"Furthermore, Asabe Ali with her child, Jinkai Yama with her three children, Yana Pogu with her four children, and Rejoice Senki with her two children were rescued in September and November this year.
“The names of the rescued girls are in Serials 18, 46, 41, 38, 7, 11, 3, 12, 20, 19, and 70 respectively (in the order of rescue) in the list of the abducted Chibok School girls.
“The rescued girls were handed over to the Borno State government after their rescue.
“Other residents in the facility were children who were rescued by troops unaccompanied (by any adult) or who separated from their parents and relatives due to the fog of war.
“If there was any evil, illegal program to systematically kill the children of Boko Haram terrorists, then the children that the terrorists begat through the Chibok girls would have been prime targets,” he said.
The most important thing, according to Akpor, is to keep in mind that there are over 245 UN organizations, international NGOs, and local NGOs operating in the Northeast. These organizations are active in IDP camps and other areas where vulnerable people are concentrated.
He asserts that the organizations collaborate with the Federal and Borno State Governments to offer food, medical care, and other services.
“The Reuters condemnable series of stories can only have arisen from a mentality of “media or press-bullying”. Reuters is a media company with worldwide reach that sells news to print, electronic and online media outlets.
“The so-called News Editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, Alexandra Zavis, remains in South Africa and concocts evil lies to insult Nigerian peoples and cultures with allegations of infanticide purportedly being sponsored and carried out by the military and civilian leaderships in North-East of Nigeria.
“The Reuters’ series of stories is akin to telling the world that Nigerians still live on top of trees.
“It now seems that the new stock in trade for Reuters is, ‘mining’ and selling lies to demonize Nigerian military, Nigerian institutions, and Nigerian leaderships.
“This new vocation of Reuters is worse than illegal arms trade, worse than hard drug trafficking, and worse than terrorism.
"The so-called Reuters’ News Editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, Alexandra Zavis, should better retrace her steps, before the founder, Paul Julius Reuter starts to regret the demonic journalism being practiced by the journalists that he left behind,” Akpor added.
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