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Ahamefula Ogbu
The story by Reuters alleging Nigerian soldiers ran a regime of abortions on women put in the family way by Boko Haram insurgents has refused to die as the United Nations has weighed in on the story calling for it to be investigated,
United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres made the call on the federal government to investigate the allegation of coerced abortions programme executed by the army. The military has however denied the allegation and accused Reuters and some foreign interests of trying to destabilise the country.
U.N spokesman Stephane Dujarric said yesterday that the world body was interested on the matter and had infact called on the Nigerian government to conduct an investigation to look into the facts of the matter.
Reuters had in a publication, alleged that the Nigerian Army has been running a secret and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast since at least 2013.
The programme, it alleged involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.
“The Secretary-General takes note with concern of the allegations of systemic and coerced abortions reportedly perpetrated by the Nigerian Army against women and girls who had already been victimized by Boko Haram.
“We call on the Nigerian authorities to fully investigate these allegations and make sure there’s accountability,” Dujarric told reporters yesterday.
The UN would want Nigeria to investigate and establish the immediate and remote causes of the said programme if true and report back to it.
The military hierarchy had earlier dismissed the report as false and an attempt to cast the military and the country in bad light, adding that their soldiers always upheld the best global ethical standards in their operations.
