By Raphael Ekpang
Borno State government has challenged Reuters to be more specific with the names of alleged victims, specific time or date of incidents and location, in their claims of purported abortion of 20, 000 pregnancies, massacre of children and other forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against the Nigerian military in it’s counter-insurgency operations in the North East.
The Special Adviser to the Borno State Governor on Security, Brigadier General Sani Isa (retd), said, they was no how Boko Haram fighters could allow their wives to be exposed to the military because they care more of their families than you think, therefore, if Reuters had wanted sane Nigerians and the world to believe their cooked story, as a trained investigator, I expected them (Reuters) to have been more specific in their reports regarding the names of alleged victims, specific time or date incidents occurred, location, etc.
The retired general noted that, it is unfortunate that now that we are getting it right with our security situation, people are coming up with false claims to divert attention. The whole report is planned to cause distraction.
According to him, “Those of us who were in the front line at the time of the alleged violation did not see any of such unfortunate incidents contained in the Reuters report, so the question now where and how did they come about such a heinous report?” Gen. Isa queried.
He said as a civilian who now interacts with a lot of people and with the nature of his appointment which enables him to deal more with ex-combatant now than when he was in the service of the Nigerian Army, he has not heard any of the ex-fighters complain about issues alleged in the report.
So “it is not possible that a crime of such magnitude will be committed without anyone knowing and talking about it”. It is all false and a tactic to distract the military that has achieved so much,” he said.
However,. The Special Adviser to the Borno State Governor on Security said, the military took advantage of Shekau’s death to end the Boko Haram war by encouraging Boko Haram fighters to surrender their arms.
He revealed that he was in charge of the surrender of 90,000 thousand insurgents through a non-kinetic approach, a policy of the state government which he helped develop.
According to him, 85% of Boko Haram members were forcefully conscripted and as we speak 95% of the die-hard Boko Haram members are dead, adding that for the past 5 months, Boko Haram have been killing themselves because of their ideologies.
He said ex-combatants who surrendered are safe and the rate of childbirth among them is very high, “a woman nursing a 4-month-old baby would have been already pregnant for another baby, go to Haji Camp and see things for you yourself.”
