NHRC panel clears Nigerian military of mass forced abortions

An independent investigation panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has cleared the Nigerian military of an allegation that it conducted forced abortions on thousands of women in the northeast.

The findings of the committee led by Abdu Aboki, a former Supreme Court justice, were sequel to some media reports that the military forced women to have at least 10,000 abortions between 2013 and 2021.

Speaking during a presentation of the report in Abuja on Friday, Hilary Ogbonna, secretary of the panel, said the investigative committee found out that a non-governmental organisation conducted the abortions during the aforementioned period.

His words: “For the abortion assault, the panel did not find evidence that the Nigerian Armed Forces committed systematic, secret or policy-driven abortions in the north-east to the tune of 10,000. There was no evidence before the panel to prove that.

“For smother and poison, the panel did not find the military culpable for the massacre of children, but the panel found the military culpable of infanticide and the killing of community members in a village in Marte LGA of Borno on the 16th of June 2016.

“We received witness testimonies of that of survivors – you will find all of these in the report.”