Brigadier General Haruna Garba facing the Panel. Photo:Tanimu Salihu/Radio Nigeria
The Nigerian Army has denied running any operation called “Operation no living things” in any part of the country.
The denial was issued in Abuja by a former Garrison Commander, 7 Division, Maiduguri, Brigadier-General Haruna Abubakar Garba, when he appeared before the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations in the Counter-Insurgency Operations in the North-East.
Brigadier-General Garba insisted that “Operation no living things” only took place in Sierra Leone, contrary to what was reported by Reuters.
Reuters, an International News Agency, had reported that the Nigerian Army conducted an Operation known as “Operation no living thing”, wherein children were massacred.
According to General Garba, the reports by Reuters were “intended to smear the efforts of Nigerian Army” in their counter-insurgency operations against terrorists.
He also called on the Panel to ask Reuters to “bring forward” those they allegedly interviewed in the said reports on mass, forced abortions as well as the massacre of innocent children by the Nigerian Military during their operations in the North-Eastern part of the country.
Reporting by Tanimu Salihu; Editing by Daniel Adejo and Tony Okerafor