Army
The National Human Rights Commission Commission,NHRC, is set to inaugurate a Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the Implementation of Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu (SAN), in Abuja.
Ojukwu said that the panel will among other things focus on investigating the Reuters report, which alleged that Nigerian Military was involved in abortion of many pregnancies in the North East in the last 10 years.
22,000 missing persons missing in Nigeria-Report …it’s the highest in Africa The Executive Director, CLEEN foundation, Dr. Benson Olugbuo has quoted the International Committee Red Cross (ICRC), stating that within the last 10yrs, about 22,000 people have been missing from Nigeria alone, which is the highest record in Africa so far. Speaking Monday at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) headquarters in Abuja in commemoration of the 2021 International Day of the Disappeared, he said the highest case recorded was in 2014 when girls from the Government Girls College, Chibok also known as Chibok girls were kidnapped from their school by the Boko Haram insurgents. He said people had always laid complaints about cases of kidnap, missing persons, and other cases of disappearance but very little was done hence the need to review the laws of missing persons to get more effective. Minister, Ministry of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen lamented that Nigeria had the highest case of missing persons in Africa hence, urged that the present administration were on their toes to curb the situation. She noted that families of missing persons were always traumatised, stressing that the law enforcement agencies need every support to ensure that insecurity and cases of disappearance were eradicated. The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu announced the launch of a pilot project on establishing a database for missing persons which will kick off from Borno State; hence he hopes the project would all kick off in other parts of the country. (Daily Trust)
The international media organisation, he said, had alleged that the Military was involved in massacre of children as well as other Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the North East.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Military has refuted the allegations, saying it was a ploy to malign the image of the Nigerian Armed Forces, which has been at the forefront of the counter insurgency efforts in the North East.
Ojukwu said the panel will be inaugurated on February 7, 2023 at the Bukhari Bello Auditorium, NHRC Headquarters in Abuja.
Members of the panel, he said, are retired Justice Abdu Aboki, Supreme Court Justice, as Chairman; Kemi Okonyedo, representing Women Rights Organisation; and Azubuike Nwankenta, representing the Nigeria Bar Association.
Others are retired Major General Letam Wiwa (Military Law and Intelligence Expert) and Dr. Maisaratu Bakari (Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital Yola).
Others are Dr. Fatima Akilu (Humanitarian Expert, representing Civil Society) and Halima Nuradeen (Psychologist, representing Youths).
NAN reports that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, had said about the report: “It’s outright nonsense.
“Their allusion is news to me.
“It never occurred.
“I never saw anything like that from Maiduguri down to Maimalamari Cantonment where I lived, that is a major hospital for our personnel and their family.
“I am disappointed to say the least.
“So it is not true.”
