The report of the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation in Counter-Insurgency Operations in North-East Nigeria, SIIP-North-East, played a crucial role in saving Nigeria from being invited by the International Criminal Court, ICC, to respond to allegations of human rights infractions.
Executive Secretary of the National Human Right Commission, NHRC, Dr. Tony Ojukwu, disclosed this on Friday.
The Special Independent Investigative Panel was set up by the NHRC to investigate reports by Reuters, which claimed that the Nigerian military carried out forced abortion on thousands of women in Borno State and other parts of the North-East as part of the war against terrorism.
The Reuters report, published in December 2022, specifically said the Nigerian military’s abortion programme terminated at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.
The Reuters reports also said the Nigerian military massacred women and children in the North-East.
But the NHRC Special Independent Investigative Panel, while presenting its report on November 8, 2024, said after an extensive investigation, it found “no evidence” that the Nigerian military deliberately attacked women and children or carried out secret abortions in its fight against the Islamist insurgency in the North-East