Yobe is not aware of military abortion programme in North-East – Attorney General
Story from Sa’adatu MAINA, Damaturu
The Attorney General of Yobe State and the Commissioner of Justice, Barrister Saleh Samanja, said that the state government is unaware of any abortion programme carried out by the military in the state government hospitals throughout the insurgency period in the North East.
The Attorney General made this known on Thursday, 30th March 2023 at CEDARS Conference Hall Damaturu while fielding questions on some allegations from the officials of a Special Independent Investigative Panel of the National Human Rights Commission.
The Commissioner further revealed that during the peak of the insurgency, the Federal Government of Nigeria declared the State of Emergency in Borno and Yobe which were considered as worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency and the federal government advised the states to give the military maximum cooperation to fish out Boko Haram insurgents.
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During that period according to the Commission, all the state government officials had no right to decide what the military should do or not.
He however said, despite that, no case of abortion being done by the military in any of the State Government Hospitals was brought up as a report to the Ministry of Justice as alleged by some media organisations and claimed by the National Human Rights Commission.
Giving highlights on why the panel is in Yobe State, the Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs of the National Human Rights Commission, Fatima Muhammad, said the panel was inaugurated in February 2023 and has been on a fact-finding mission on allegations raised by Reuters News Agency that about 10,000 abortions were conducted by the military during the insurgency period in the North East.
According to Fatima, the panel will consult every stakeholder as well as people in the community to get first-hand information on the alleged cases.
The panel held a discussion as well as a question and answers session with the military, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and government agencies.
