The Commander of Sector 3 Multi-National Joint Task Force Mongonu, Major General Abdulsalam Enesi Abubakar said on Tuesday that Reuters report of human rights violations by the military is unfounded.
General Abubakar refuted Reuters’ report while testifying before the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation in Counter Insurgency Operation in the North East sitting in Maiduguri the Borno State capital.
He said that Nigerian army was not involved in any heinous human right violation and that as a professional institution the Nigerian army would not be involved in such act.
Testifying before the 7-man panel of experts, Major General Abubakar said that as at 2018, the period referred to in the report, Gasarawa was deserted and the inhabitants had been moved to camps where they were staying due to terrorists attacks.
The commander said that Reuters fabricated the number of children it alleged were killed by the military in Gasarawa as well as the soldier it claimed witnessed the incident, adding that the report were mere imaginary.
He explained that the Nigerian army personnel are professionals and well trained . They respect human rights and abide by international humanitarian law during war situations.
According to Abubakar if the allegation contained in the Reuters report was true, there would have been outcry, pictures, and evidence to show the atrocious act. “To say 500 people were killed in 60 violence is simply mischievous, I don’t know where that report is coming from. It is unfounded,” he added.
Similarly, the Commanding Officer of Sector 2 Joint Task Force, North-East Operation HADIN KAI, Damaturu, Major General Mayirenso Lander David Saraso, narrated how they received and facilitated the movement of 1,199 repentant Boko Haram members from Niger who before now came into town through unsecured route.
He said none of these ex-combatants spend up to 24 hours with the Military before they are immediately conveyed to Maiduguri for proper reintegration.
When asked by the general counsel to the panel, Mr. Hillary Ogbanna about the alleged violation, specifically the killing of children that took place in Kukawa in 2018, Major General Saraso said no one was living at the location at that time, no troops, no commercial activities, so it could not have been possible that a soldier witnessed the killing of children where there are no human activities.