The Defence Headquarters has refuted the recent claim by the international human rights campaigners, the Amnesty International, that troops involved in the on-going anti-terrorism operation in the North East committed grisly acts of rights abuse and war crimes. The AI had released a video in which men in military uniform purported to be men of the Nigerian Army were engaged in extra judicial killings.
But the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, said in a press briefing on Tuesday that the Nigeria military which had always placed emphasis on the respect for human life and human rights could not have perpetrated the heinous acts recorded in the video.
Olukolade said that the scenes contained in the videos were strange to the operations of the Nigeria military and would be investigated to find out if they were not smuggled into the system or not.
The Defence Spokesman said that the military leadership had constituted a panel of senior military officers and forensic experts in addition to the existing Joint Investigation Team to study and verify the grave claims contained in the video in spite of the repeated impersonation of the joint operation in the North East.
He said the military leadership was probing the video because the scenes were too grievous to be associated with the troops whose doctrine of training placed emphasis on the sanctity of human life, the respect for human rights and humanitarian laws.
Olukolade said, “The Nigerian military takes the issue of Human Rights seriously and will never condone any proven case of abuse by its personnel. Military authorities are deeply concerned about the set of video footage being circulated and which unfortunately has also become reference data for Amnesty International in its report.
“Much as the scenes depicted in these videos are alien to our operations and doctrines, it has to be investigated to ensure that such practices have not crept, surreptitiously into the system.
“The Defence Headquarters considers these allegations too grievous to be associated with Nigerian troops, considering the doctrinal and operational contents of the training imparted to personnel on a continuous basis; emphasizing the importance of respect for Human Rights and dignity of human person as well as observance of humanitarian laws.”
However, the Defence Spokesman was silent on the leader of the panel and the time frame for the investigation.
Olukolade added that the recorded attempts by the military to protect the rights of detained terror suspects indicated clearly that operatives of the Nigerian military could not have carried out the dastardly acts in the said video.
He also said that the Joint Investigation Team was visiting detention facilities and had been compiling a list to decongest the facilities where the suspects are detained.
He said that in spite of the previous cases of impersonation involving the operations and the possible doubts from such incidents, the military was taking the current issue seriously because of its threat to the integrity of the operations which must be continued in the nation’s interest. He described the acts contained in the videos as barbaric and unacceptable saying they would not be condoned by the military. He assured Nigerians and the international community of the resolve of the military respect human life in its operation.
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