The Nigerian Army has debunked allegation of rape and other offences leveled against the military by the human rights group, Amnesty International.
Amnesty International accused soldiers and some members of the Civilian Joint Task Force of sexual exploitation in Internally Displaced Persons camps.
The Nigerian Army described the persistent “false” allegations against the soldiers as a deliberate plot to frustrate the ongoing fight against insurgency and declared that it would no longer take it.
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The military’s position was made known on Friday at a press conference addressed by the Acting Director of Defence Information, John Agim, in Borno State.
Agim who led the team that probed the allegations said the cases against the soldiers were totally untrue.
His words: “I have interacted with the stakeholders in the camps and they said that the Nigerian Armed Forces have neither molested, sexually assaulted nor raped any IDP as alleged by Amnesty International’s recent concocted report.
“In the Armed Forces, we maintain that we do not condone rape and do not have rapists among us.
“You have also established that soldiers are not deployed inside the IDP camps; hence, the need to take you round the two most populous camps in Borno State which are Bakassi IDP Camp with over 35,000 displaced persons from five different local governments areas namely: Marte, Monguno, Gwoza, Gwuzamala and Nganzan, as well as Dalori IDP Camp with over 7,800 persons from Bama and Konduga local governments respectively.”
Agim said the actions of the Amnesty International had proved to be aimed at frustrating the support other countries were offering in the fight against insurgency.
“Why are they doing that? They want the crisis not to finish?” Agim asked.
