The director of defence information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade on Friday, April 4, 2014 responded to the allegations made by the international rights campaigners, the Amnesty International, saying the report was inconsistent with the reality on the ground in the North-East geopolitical zone.
He also stated that the Defence Headquarters where taking appropriate measures to investigate the said allegations
HE said the report was contradictory to their reports as he strongly believed that the military authorities had taken special care in dealing with the insurgents.
Punch reports:
The Defence Headquarters on Friday responded to allegations of human rights violations by international rights campaigners,
Olukolade said that the Defence Headquarters would take necessary actions to address any incident of human rights violations found to have been committed by troops during the investigations.
He described the report as a new dimension to the issue of gross rights abuse, which according to him, were committed by the insurgents against the civilian populace in the mission areas.
He said that the military authorities had put measures in place to ensure strict adherence to standard rules of engagement and observance of human rights in spite of the peculiar asymmetric nature of the insurgency.
Olukolade argued that the military had ensured that captured insurgents were kept in detention facilities which were even made open to inspection by international non-governmental organisations including the International Red Cross Society and others in consonance with the military’s position on human rights.
The international rights group had accused the special forces and the Boko Haram insurgents of human rights violation in its recent report entitled “Nigeria: More than 1,500 killed in Armed Conflict in north-eastern Nigeria in early 2014.”
He maintained that the military ensured adherence to standard rules and kept detainees in custody even when the insurgents had destroyed government facilities including prisons, courts and others.
“The Amnesty International’s report contains very serious allegations of human rights abuses in the north eastern part of Nigeria.
“This report is a new dimension to the well-known fact that the security operation in that part of the country was necessitated by the need to address the gross abuse of human rights being perpetrated against Nigerians by the terrorists.
“The claim contained in the Amnesty International’s report attributing gross abuses of human rights of Nigerians to both the terrorists and the security forces is quite confounding.”
