Major General Christopher Musa
By Raphael Ekpang
As the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) through the Special Independent Investigative Panel of the Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East (SIIP-NE) press to unravel the truth about the Reuters’ report on the human rights violation, the immediate past Theatre Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) of the Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East, Major General Christopher Musa has urged Reuters to apologies to Nigeria military-.Maj. Gen. Musa said Reuters’ report of human rights violations against the Nigeria military is a mistaken identity of another country, otherwise “there is an ill-motive”.
Maj. Gen. Musa stated this in Maiduguri, Borno state capital while testifying before the Justice Abdu Aboki (rtd) panel.
However, he told the panel that Reuters should apologise to the Nigerian military for the allegations of secret, involuntary, and illegal abortions of 10,000 pregnancies involving women and girls, infanticide, and other Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) which he dismissed as fallacious.
Also, Musa noted that the report is also an indictment of the United Nations system working with the military towards addressing the various issues elicited by insurgency in the North East, saying that of all stakeholders and media organisations only Reuters made the allegations.
According, “it is illogical for anybody or any institution to associate the Nigeria military with the deliberate killing of civilians because it is rather concerned about saving lives, particularly women and children who are usually taken to the rear away from the frontline, and subsequently profiled before handing them over to State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for further necessary action.”
The erstwhile Theatre Commander said that the military should be commended given the level of sacrifices it has made to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria instead of being maligned. He added that during his time, he lost about 200 troops at Madagali.
He disclosed that since July 2021 over 84 thousand returnees have surrendered to the military saying that the number comprises women, children, and men.
