The Nigerian Army has released a statement asking Politicians to leave the Military, especially the Nigerian Army out of their Politics and the spread of fake news, aimed at discrediting the entire Military in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
The statement which was issued on Friday by the Nigerian Army Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, said since the unfortunate incident of 18th November (metele attack), and before that, notable Politicians have done nothing but condemn the Army, and spread fake news as to the ongoing Military operations in the North-East.
Brigadier General Sani in the statement, said despite the Army releasing official figures as to the number of soldiers that died in the Metele attack, these already identified Nigerians have continued to spread fake news and trying to politicize the fight against insurgency.
He said those behind the spread of fake news have been identified and legal actions will be taken against them soon.
See the full statement:
The Nigerian Army has noted with great concern the deliberate and concerted efforts to mislead the public by some people through misinformation. Thus creating an erroneous impression of the Nigerian Army through the inaccurate and false publication of casualty figures on the unfortunate attacks on some of its locations in the North East.
The latest of this worrisome development was the attack on our troop’s location at Metele, Borno
State, in which some persons and media outlets continued to circulate various wrong accounts and inaccurate casualty figures of own troops without efforts to verify from the military.
This is coming at the heels of our release of 28th November 2018 in which we gave accurate details of the
attacks and casualty figures in a bid to set the records straight and inform the public true account of things. We also promised to continuously carry the public along through accurate and timely information dissemination on operations and other activities of the Nigerian Army in the release.
However, it was observed that the trend continued unabated. Most of these inaccurate, false reports and fake news was aimed at denigrating the leadership of the Nigerian Army.
Regrettably, the rate at which some mischievous persons ignorantly attack the Armed Forces of Nigeria,
especially the Nigerian Army is very alarming and unfortunate. This is a deliberate attempt to demoralise the
Nigerian Army which would have devastating consequences on troops’ will to discharge their constitutional
duties especially in the fight against terrorism and insurgency, thus affecting national security.
We would like to warn all those mischief makers to keep the Nigerian Army out of their politics and mischief.
Journalists and media platforms should be professional and accurate in their reportage. The achievements of the Nigerian Army within the last three years are glaringly obvious, therefore, whatever recent temporary
setbacks we experienced in the course of the fight against terrorism and insurgency should not be the yardstick for condemning these laudable three and half years’ accomplishments.
We have however identified the few unpatriotic harbingers of the fake news on the attack at Metele and would take appropriate legal actions against them. This is to ensure that the Nigerian Army is insulated from
propaganda and ulterior motives of destabilising the country. The Nigerian Army is quite aware that the
perpetrators through these acts are covertly supporting terrorists and their activities in Nigeria with a long-term objective.
We are also aware that they want to use insecurity to scuttle and subvert the democratic process in
the country. Consequently, we would like to state unequivocally that no amount of mischief or pressure would circumvent the journey to a peaceful, free and fair general elections in Nigeria. We, therefore, need the continued support, encouragement and understanding of well-meaning Nigerians as we deal decisively with the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists hibernating at the fringes of our borders with contiguous countries of Cameroon, Chad and the Niger Republic.
We are committed to the defence of the territorial integrity of Nigeria. We hasten to state that we will continue to be professional in our assigned roles and remain apolitical at all times. Once more we warn mischief makers and proponents of misinformation and fake news to desist from such practice and join other well-meaning, law abiding Nigerians to support our Army to countering terrorism and insurgency in the country.
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