Reports that the Maimalari Military Hospital in Maiduguri, Borno State, was performing forced abortions on rescued insurgent casualties were denied as untrue by two senior staff members.
The staff members said that the hospital only deals with miscarriage cases, including a registrar named Chika Joachim and the Head of Nursing Services, D. Tumaka.
Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, the Human Rights Commission’s deputy director of public affairs, reported the development in a statement after looking into a Reuters report alleging serious human rights breaches by the military.
According to the Reuters article, the military allegedly performed over 10,000 forced abortions in the North East while engaged in counterinsurgency operations.
Corporal Micheal Babatunde, the mortuary technician at the military medical center; LT. Nuhu Danjuma Koro, the medical records custodian; and Sgt. Nelson Meture, the pharmacy technician, were all interrogated by Mohammed as part of a panel assembled to look into the accusation.
The statement read, “Chika Joachim Maduka, a specialist registrar attached to Maimalari Military Hospital at the headquarters of Operation Hadin Kai, 7 Division, Maiduguri, Borno State, told the special independent investigative panel on allegations of human rights violations in the counter-insurgency operations in the North-East that the hospital only manages miscarriages and not abortion of pregnancies
“The testimony of the doctor followed his examination by the secretary of the panel, Mr Hilary Ogbonna, when he responded to the allegation of abortion of 10,000 pregnancies of women and girls in the course of counter-insurgency in the North-East, as alleged in the Reuters’ report.”
“The witness, who is also an obstetrics gynaecologist, stated that although the hospital carries out medical termination of pregnancies when the need arises, it abides by the standard practice.”
The declaration also revealed Maduka testified before the seven-member panel, which was presided by by Justice Abdu Aboki (ret. ), that contrary to what was said in a Reuters story, he never performed any abortions on women or girls during his three years of employment at the hospital.
The statement further disclosed Maduka told the seven-member panel, chaired by Justice Abdu Aboki (retd), that in his three-year practice in the hospital, he never carried out any abortion of pregnancies of women and girls as alleged in Reuters’ report.
“Also in his testimony before the panel, the Chief Nursing Superintendent and Head of Nursing Services at the hospital, Lt. Colonel D. Tumaka, said that the hospital does not have any record of abortion.
“According to the chief nurse, every medication administered to patients is prescribed by Doctors, and they are documented in nurses’ drug charts as a routine practice,” the statement added.
