The Nigerian Army has dissociated itself from operation non living thing as alleged by Reuters in its four-part report.
The Army said it should not be associated with the operation in the fight against insurgency in the North East by Reuters, saying operation non living thing took place in Sierra Leone and not in Nigeria.
Brigadier General Abubakar Haruna, former Garrison Commander of the 21 Armour Brigade Bama, Borno state made the declaration on Friday.
General Haruna spoke at the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation in Counter Insurgency Operation in the North East held in Abuja.
Testifying as a witness before the 7-Member panel chaired by Justice Abdu Aboki (rtd), Haruna, who is also a former Garrison Commander of the 7 Division of Nigeria Army in Maiduguri emphasised that “Clearance operation is not the same as operation non living thing, even the operation non living thing took place in Sierra Leone, so where did Reuters saw the operation in Nigeria” he asked?
It would be recalled that Reuters published a four-part report in December 2022 and in April 2023 over allegations of human rights violation against the Nigerian Army.
On the allegation of illegal abortion of 10000 pregnancies, he said “I have heard about the report, but is it not ridiculous. We did our job, we created IDPs camp for ease of administration.
“We used our drugs to treat the people. How can somebody sit down and say the military aborted 10,000 pregnancies”.
According to Haruna, the Reuters allegations is targeted to erode the gains of the Nigerian Army, stressing that the Nigerian Army rank among the best in the world.
Testifying further he said “If somebody voluntarily surrender, we move them to the rear and give the best protection.
“What do we gain by eliminating somebody that has surrendered. Professionally you can’t just kill. I had the responsibility of protecting the troops and civilians”.
General Haruna added “where were Reuters when we recaptured Bama? We never had time to think of who is pregnant”.
