More testimonies have continue to be heard from the military, even as the Special Independent Investigative Panel probes into the alleged Human Rights Violations by officers of the Armed Forces during counter-insurgency operations in the North East.
At its resumed hearing on Friday, May 12, the Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army Amour Corp (NAAC) Headquarters Bauchi and former Garrison Commander, 7 Div Garrison Maiduguri, Brigadier General Haruna Garba testified before the seven-man panel led by a former justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Aboki.
Brigadier Garba denied an allegation by Reuters suggesting that the military has over a decade carried out mass abortion in the North East as part of plans to annihilate the offspring of Boko Haram fighters.
He said there is no way the military could have been involved in such crimes having been in the forefront of trying to restore peace to the North east and other parts of the country.
According to him, the allegation is only intended to demoralize the military personnel in the theatre of war at a time when they seem to be gaining victory over the terrorist elements.
So far, nine top military officers have testified before the 7-man panel of experts during the third batch of sitting.
Also appearing on Friday before the panel to testify is the former Chief of Staff of the Military Multinational Joint Task Force, Brig. General Tuni Isah who describes the allegation as unimaginable.
He said the Nigerian Army is a professional organization which operates within the ambit of the law.
Reuters reported in 2022 that the Nigerian military through a clandestine operation terminated 10,000 pregnancies of women who were either rescued from Boko Haram fighters or married to them.
The report also alleged that the military carried out a massacre of children in the Northeast.
The organization had claimed that the clandestine operation codenamed” OPERATION NO LIVING THINGS” was carried out by soldiers in the theatre of war as vengeance against the Boko Haram fighters and to ensure that the children of the terrorist fighters were wiped out.
