A Specialist Registrar attached to Maimalari Military hospital at the headquarters of Operation Hadin Kai, 7 Division, Maiduguri, Borno state, Dr. Chika Joachim Maduka told the Special Independent Investigative Panel on Allegations of Human Rights Violations in the Counter Insurgency Operations in the North East (SIIP-NE) 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 operations 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.
Besides, he told the 7-Member panel chaired by Justice Abdu Aboki (rtd) 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.
He said that most of the patients they treat are wives of military personnel even as he conceded they offer some assistance to women and children rescued by the troops by way of providing them with water and food and ensuring they take their bathe before the appropriate military authorities hand them over the state government.
He also said that they ensure that the medical professional ethics which is also similar to that of the military profession has strictly adhered to in all ramifications at all times. The military is highly law-abiding and no military medical facility will subject itself to illicit medical practice, he added.
The panel also took turns to interrogate Corporal Micheal Babatunde, the mortuary technician, LT. Nuhu Danjuma Koro, the custodian of medical records, and Sgt Nelson Meture, the pharmacy Technician, all serving at the military medical facility.