The National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) Special Independent Investigative panel in North East (SIIP-NE) on Wednesday, arrived Damaturu,Yobe state for facts finding mission.
The panel was set up following allegations of mass abortion and human abuses by the military in the North East by Reuters
The Deputy Director Corporate affairs of the Commission, Fatima Mohammed, made this known while speaking with Journalists in Yobe.
She said, the mandate of the NHRC was to investigate cases of human rights violation leveled against the military.
She said the allegations of human rights violation are not ordinary and should not be swept under the carpet.
“At the end of the mission, we expected to unrope the truth and make it public,” he said
Also speaking, the secretary SIIP-NE, Mr. Hillary Ogbanna, said that the panel was established in line with the inherent express and incidental powers of the NHRC under sections 5 and 6 of the commission’s Act of 2020.
He noted that, the SIIP has the mandate of investigating allegations contained in the Reuters report and make recommendations on culpability and accountability and reforms along the lines of the alleged violations and on integrating human rights in the counter- insurgency operations in Nigeria and North East.
Speaking exclusively with Blueprint, Yobe state Attorney General and the Commissioner of Justice ,Barrister Saleh Samanja, said Yobe state government is unaware of any abortion programme carried out by the military in the state Government’s Hospitals.
The Commissioner further revealed that during the peak of insurgency, the federal government, declared State of Emergency in Borno and Yobe which were considered as worse hit by Boko Haram insurgency and the federal government advised the states to give the military maximum cooperation in order to fish out Boko Haram.
During that period according to the Commissioner, all the state Government officials had no right to decide what the military should do or not.
He however said, despite that, there was no case of abortion being done by the Military in any of the state government owned Hospitals.
