TheCable

Lucky Irabor, chief of defence staff, says the forced abortions allegation against the Nigerian army came to him as a rude shock.

Irabor spoke on Friday when he testified before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) investigative panel.

The panel was inaugurated to probe a report by Reuters on alleged human rights violations in counter-insurgency operations in the north-east.

Irabor said the claims were strange, adding that the army did not stigmatise children fathered by the Boko Haram terrorists in the region.

He said the army officers reportedly interviewed in the publication would be granted immunity to testify, adding that they should be brought before the panel.

“The allegations came as a ‘rude shock to me. It is a rude shock to me that someone could orchestrate such a report,” NAN quoted Irabor as saying.

“There are strange allusions, if they say we want to stop regeneration of Boko Haram children, on what grounds.

“We are not responsible for the stigmatization of the women who bore children for Boko Haram insurgents, we don’t know them.

“Who are the officers, I will give them immunity to come and testify before the panel on what they have alleged.

“Throughout my I stay as a commander, I never heard of who are referred as wives of Boko Haram insurgents.

“I never witnessed it, it is a strange allusion to the arrangement within the armed forces. We have disciplined procedures, if the officer saddled with a responsibility did not report how do I know?

“The military facility under my control is open. There is nothing secretive going on there.

“Whoever will disparage the men and women of the armed forces who have put their lives in the forefront, is doing a damage.”