The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Sunday dismissed trending gory pictures and videos of a mass burial of persons purportedly to have been killed in the ongoing military operations in the North West and North Central geographical zones of the country.
In a statement made available to Defence Correspondents in Abuja by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Benjamin Olufemi Sawyer, the Military High Command described the claim as false and urged the members of the public to disregard it in its entirety.
According to the statement, “it is pertinent to state that the allegation is false and malicious and has no link whatsoever with the operations being conducted by troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN).
While acknowledging that “it is true that the AFN is presently conducting successful military operations against bandits and kidnappers in line with its constitutional roles,” it affirmed that “these operations are being conducted in strict compliance with the rules of armed conflicts, utmost professional manner, strict adherence to rules of engagement and respect for fundamental human rights and dignity.”
It insisted that “the viral pictures being circulated have nothing in common with the ongoing operations,” saying that “this callous action of linking ongoing operations with falsehood is deliberate and thus, seeks to tarnish the good image and reputation of the AFN.”
According to the statement, “for the record, the AFN conducts a fortnightly defence media operations brief in which pictures of the operations are displayed to complement achievements in the ongoing operations.
“Any attempt therefore to portray the AFN in a bad light as a crude force is unacceptable and unpatriotic.”
While assuring that the AFN would not rest on its oars in performing the constitutional mandate of ensuring that the nation remains safe and peaceful for all law-abiding citizens it urged the general public to disregard the gory pictures, saying that they were meant to tarnish the image of the military for the selfish interest of the authors of the fake news.
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