The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Abuja, has accused a foreign news organization Reuters of trying to blackmail the Nigerian military through what it called “mercenary journalism.” IgbereTV reports
Maj.Gen. Jimmy Akpor, the director of defense information, made this accusation in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.
Akpor claimed that the news organization claimed to be working on a number of articles about alleged on unlawful activities taken by the Nigerian military during the 13-year conflict between the government and Islamist militants in Nigeria’s North-East.
He also alleged that Reuters had given the go-ahead to work on fabricated reports that purported to center on an alleged military program that involved forcing abortions on women and girls who had been kidnapped and impregnated by Islamist terrorists.
He rates that the agency claimed that the military allegedly killed youngsters as part of counterinsurgency efforts in the second report.
The defense official stated that the Reuters story would also claim that the Nigerian military has been conducting a covert, routine, and illegal abortion operation in the nation’s North-East since 2013, which has resulted in the termination of at least 12,000 pregnancies among women and girls.
He further said that Reuters had claimed that numerous children had allegedly been shot, poisoned, smothered, or driven over by vehicles during army-led operations.
He continued, saying that among other grave fabrications, the report would claim that soldiers picked out infants and toddlers for execution after saving their mothers and the children from Islamist militants
