Nigerian military on Friday said it is capable of defeating Boko Haram insurgents terrorising communities in the nation’s northeast.
The Defence Headquarters made the statement in response to a story it said was published by some newspapers entitled, ‘why military can’t defeat Boko Haram’.
It denied claims that the comment was made by the military high command, saying “it is purely and unreservedly misleading and can best be described as a figment of press imagination”.
Inappropriate And Misleading
A statement by the Defence Headquarters spokesman, Rabe Abubakar, said the story, which claimed that Service Chiefs decried inadequate equipment and non-release of 2015 military votes as the reason of continued insurgency, was equally “scurrilous and calculated to diminish the armed forces”.
“The story is false and far from what happened when the service chiefs visited the leadership of the senate.
“But for avoidance of doubt, the visit of the military leadership to the Senate President was purely a closed-door meeting aimed at intimating the Senate about the level of successes recorded in the onslaught against Boko Haram and to assure the National Assembly and all Nigerians that the military is winning and will soon see the end of this menace called Boko Haram,” the statement read.
The military said the newspapers’ captions were inappropriate and misleading designed to further confuse the general public about the situation in the North East region.
The Defence Headquarters further sought the support of the public in the fight against insurgents and appealed to the media to eschew any report capable of inciting or encouraging the terrorists to continue their terror attacks on innocent, law-abiding citizens.
It assured the media that it would always give all necessary pieces of information to the general public and urged the media to always verify the sources of story, especially in matters that touch on national security and defence.
The military’ statement is coming few days after an attack on Dalori village in Borno State, suspected to have been carried out by Boko Haram terrorists, left over 60 persons dead and over 60 others injured.
Most of those affected were fleeing women and children who ran into suicide bombers in a nearby village, an official of the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Earlier on Sunday, the State Emergency Management Agency’s Zonal Coordinator, Mr Mohammed Kanar, told Channels Television that the death toll could rise, as other rescue organisations were involved in providing aid to the victims.
