Taiwo Popoola
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, on Friday, dismissed allegations that the Nigerian military was involved in forcefully aborting pregnancies among women impregnated by Boko Haram insurgents in Northern Nigeria.
A Reuters report from February 2022 alleged that the military conducted a secret abortion program as part of its counter-insurgency efforts in the northeast, terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, General Musa refuted these claims, describing them as baseless and part of a smear campaign orchestrated by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ulterior motives.
“I wish you could call them now and ask that question. I was the theatre commander when this accusation surfaced, and it was deeply upsetting. I realized most of these organizations do not mean well for us,” he said.
He argued that such allegations often emerge when the military makes significant progress, aiming to tarnish its image and demoralize troops. “Whenever we are succeeding, they throw this at us to make us look bad. The question is, what is their intent? Are they unhappy with our success?”
General Musa recalled discussing the matter with the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, emphasizing the need for an investigation to clear the air.
“When this came up, I told General Irabor we should investigate it thoroughly because I was confident nothing like this happened,” he stated.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) later constituted an independent panel to probe the allegations. According to General Musa, the panel found no evidence of wrongdoing by the military. He also noted that the military granted the panel unrestricted access during the investigation, which lasted over a year.
“The NHRC committee investigated this for one and a half years, and I was the first to testify in January 2023. They had complete access to go wherever they wanted, and their report found no evidence of these claims,” he said.
General Musa called for a public apology from those who made the allegations, adding that the military had approached the Attorney General to pursue legal action against the accusers.
He also questioned the silence of international organizations and local NGOs, including the United Nations, over a decade if such actions had truly occurred. “If we had been doing this for 10 years, as claimed, why didn’t these organizations report it? Are they also complicit?”
General Musa further alleged that some NGOs involved in safe abortion programs for over 10,000 Nigerians could have been the source of the report cited by Reuters.
