The Armed Forces of Nigeria says the international news agency, Reuters, is selling lies to demonize the Nigerian military.
Reuters released a story on Wednesday to expose that the Nigerian army has been performing secret abortions for women and girls that have been victims of insurgency.
According to Reuters, at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls who had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist Militants, were aborted by the military.
READ ALSO: Arise TV, Channels TV Hate Tinubu — Fani-Kayode Accuses
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, in Abuja, Defence Chief, General Lucky Irabor, said the military would not investigate the report as it was false.
In his words, “ I don’t think I should waste my energy on such things.”
The defence chief claims the cases mentioned in the report never occurred and he never saw anything like that.
In a press release signed by the Major General, Director of Defence Information (DDI) of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) Jimmy Akpor on December 2, 2022, the force revealed that it had been contacted by Reuters to discuss the report before its release.
However, the Major General claimed Reuters attempted to use the series of stories to bully the Nigerian military by concocting evil lies to insult the Nigerian culture.
Akpor also stated that many agencies including about 245 United Nations agencies and NGOs are working to help Internally Displaced People and there is no way a scheme that big could have gone unnoticed by them.
He said, “A crucial point to note is the fact that, more than 245 United Nations agencies, International NGOS and local NGOs operate in the North East, who are active in the IDP camps and other concentrations of vulnerable peoples. They provide food, medical care and other services in collaboration with the Nigerian and Borno State Governments. But the wickedness of the Reuters team members must have blinded them, shutting them off from the humanitarian realities in the North East of Nigeria. UNICEF, Girl Child Concern, International Medical Corps, Save the Children International, Girl Effect, Concern For Women and Children Development Foundation,
International Federation of Women Lawyers, Women and Children’s Right and Peaçe Building Awareness Initiative, Medicin Sans Frontiers (France, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain) as well as Centre for Protection of Women and Girls are some of the humanitarian organizations operating in the North East. These have direct responsibilities for the welfare of children and/or women in the crisis area. Could the humanitarian community operating in the North East of Nigeria be equally complicit in condoning or supporting infanticide as thought of by Reuters?”
The Major General also warned Reuters’ News Editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, to retrace her steps before the organization’s founder regrets the journalism being practiced.
“The Reuters’ series of stories are akin to telling the world that Nigerians still live on top of trees. It now seems that the new stock in trade for Reuters is, ‘mining’ and selling lies to demonize Nigerian military, Nigerian institutions and Nigerian leaderships. This new vocation of Reuters is worse than illegal arms trade, worse than hard-drug trafficking, and actually worse than terrorism. The so-called Reuters’ News Editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, Alexandra Zavis, should better retrace her steps, before the founder, Paul Julius Reuter, starts to regret the demonic journalism being practiced by the journalists that he left behind,” he said.
