Nigeria’s Atiku will probe forced abortions report if he wins – spokesman

(Reuters) – Nigerian opposition presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s administration will investigate a Reuters report of forced abortions “with a view to stopping it” if he wins next year’s election, his spokesman Charles Aniegwu said on Thursday.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Nigerian Army has run a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast since at least 2013.

The programme has involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants, according to dozens of witness accounts and documentation reviewed by Reuters.

(Reporting by Libby George; Editint by James Macharia Chege)