25th May, 2018
Maj. Gen. Nicholas Rogers, Theatre Commander, Operation ‘Lafiya Dole’ on Friday urged soldiers fighting insurgency in the north-east not to be distracted by the Amnesty International report against the military .
Speaking on Friday in Yola at a two- day training on Mainstreaming Human Rights and Civilian Protection into Counter-Insurgency operations in the north-east, Rogers said the Nigerian Army Headquarters and Federal Government had already responded to the allegations in the report.
Amnesty International (AI), in its 2018 latest report, had alleged human rights abuses, especially of women and girls in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, by Nigerian soldiers.
Rogers however said that the allegations fell short of logic, noting that the report did not come up with statistics or data for analysis.
He also decried the AI for not writing to the Nigerian Army in the course of their investigations.
Rogers recalled that the army had constituted a special military tribunal in 2015 in Maiduguri and court -marshaled a lot of its personnel for misconducts.
He said the army had internal mechanisms to deal with issues and.therefore described the allegations by the amnesty international as a ‘ recycling of old stories’.
“Concerning the report from the amnesty international, I will urge you not to be distracted as the army authorities and the Federal government have responded accordingly.
“To us, the report is the recycling of old stories which we had taken care of in the past.
“The army in 2015 took several personnel and court marshaled them for operational misconducts.
“This report does not carry any statistics to be analysed and to us, the report is a mere allegation.
“The organisation should have written to us because we have internal mechanisms to deal with issues.
“I therefore, urge our troops not to panic so that it will not distract us from executing our core mandate of operation lafiya dole,’ Rogers said.
The training was organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).