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Nigeria and Amnesty International clash over report

Thursday May 24 2018
buhari

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By MOHAMMED MOMOH

Nigeria has accused Amnesty International (AI) of producing a misleading report on its military's activities in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the north-east.

The Presidency on Thursday said the report alleging human rights violation by the security agencies had credibility issues as it had "fallen short of evidential narration".

A Presidency spokesman, Mr Garba Shehu, said the AI report did not contain factual leads that could have laid the foundation for investigative actions.

He noted that the findings were attributed to people whose proper description was not provided.

“Engagement was claimed to have been made with Nigerian authorities, but which authority is it, is not provided with clarity.

Cases of abuse

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“This then is just a wild goose chase report, in essence," Mr Shehu said.

He observed that the Nigerian military had indeed established cases of abuse and punishments meted out accordingly.

Mr Shehu quoted President Muhammadu Buhari during his recent joint press conference with President Donald Trump at the White House as saying: “the government of Nigeria remains deeply committed to the principles of human rights, as well as promotion and protection of people’s freedom, even in the process of fighting terror".

The acting Defence director of information, Brig Gen John Agim, said the military was unhappy with what it says "`is becoming a frequent ritual by the human rights watchdog’’.

In February and March, the military condemned two reports by Amnesty - the first accusing it of rights violations in its operations, and the second accusing it of ignoring warnings about the raid by Boko Haram on Dapchi in Yobe State that led to the abduction of schoolgirls.

A frequent ritual

A military statement warned that the Amnesty report and similar others, could demoralise its members and hurt the war against insurgency.

“This malicious trend by AI is becoming a frequent ritual and it is rather unfortunate,” the statement reads.

“In times like this, Amnesty International is expected to apply the natural law of liaison by working with security agencies as partners.

“This would have been the best way to ensure that insurgency and crisis are completely wiped off rather than engaging in falsehood, maligning the military and painting her in bad light at any slight opportunity.”

The military assured Nigerians that it remained committed to all human rights as prescribed by the constitution.

It, however, called on Amnesty to “desist from cooking reports from time to time to demoralise the entire military system and nation as a whole”.

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