(Representative Image)
Nigerian military ride on their truck as they secure the area where a man was killed by suspected militants during an attack around Polo area of Maiduguri, Nigeria February 16, 2019. Reuters / AFOLABI SOTUNDE

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has established a committee to investigate allegations that the Nigerian military operated a sophisticated, covert abortion program in the country's northeast.

Fatimah Mohammed, the NHRC spokesperson, issued a statement Tuesday that the seven-member panel established to look into the allegation will be introduced on Feb.7 at the Bukhari Bello Auditorium located in the commission's headquarters, in Abuja.

"The National Human Rights Commission will on Tuesday (7th February 2023) inaugurate a Special Independent Investigative Panel on human rights violations in the implementation of counterinsurgency operations in the northeast," NHRC said, as per the statement.

The committee's official name is the Special Independent Investigative Panel to counter-human rights violations in the North East (SIIP-North East). "The panel will, among other things, focus on investigating Reuters report which alleged that Nigerian Military was involved in abortion of many pregnancies in the North East in the last 10 years," NHRC said.

Abdu Aboki, a former Supreme Court justice, will serve as its chairperson.

According to a Reuters investigation report published in December 2022, the Nigerian military allegedly operated a program that surreptitiously aborted at least 10,000 pregnancies among women who had been abducted by Boko Haram terrorists over the years.

It was asserted that Boko Haram members had raped women and young girls. The news outlet cited numerous witness reports and pieces of evidence that it had examined as sources for the story.

The international community demanded an independent investigation into the allegations of widespread and forced abortions allegedly carried out by the Nigerian army as a result of the report's controversy.

The Nigerian authorities were urged by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to launch a thorough inquiry and take prompt remedial actions and accountability measures.

The Nigerian army, in contrast, denied the allegations, claiming that there was no covert program of forced abortions carried out by the military in the country's northeast.

"It's outright nonsense. Their allusion is news to me. It never occurred. I never saw anything like that from Maiduguri down to Maimalamari Cantonment, where I lived, which is a major hospital for our personnel and their family. I am disappointed, to say the least. So it is not true." The Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, had said, as per The Cable.