At a resumed hearing of the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation in Counter Insurgency Operation in the North East, which held in Maiduguri Borno State on Tuesday, the Commander of Sector 3 Multi-National Joint Task Force Mongonu, Major General Abdulsalam Enesi Abubakar said the three-part Report of Alleged Human Rights Violation by the Military During Counter Insurgency Operation published by Reuters is unfounded, saying as a professional institution the Nigerian army would not be involved in such heinous human rights violation.
Testifying before the 7-man panel of experts, Major General Abubakar said as of 2018, a period referred to in the report, Gasarawa was not occupied, it was disserted, and people stayed in camps at that time. Wondering where Reuters got the number of children allegedly killed by the Military in Gasarawa, the army commander said the soldier who claimed to have witnessed the incident as contained in the said report is not an authentic soldier of the Nigerian army.
He explained that the Nigerian army is professionally trained to respect human rights and abide by international humanitarian law during war situations. According to Abdulsalam, 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”
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 in 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.
END
