By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The High Command of the Nigerian Army (NA), on Tuesday, accused a popular Nigerian online medium – Sahara Reporters of a deliberate attempt to incite troops against constituted authorities and destabilize Nigeria, using
spurious, baseless and false allegations against the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army (NA).
The Service added that the real intention or otherwise of the infamous online media in publishing such toxic concoctions at this critical period is targeted at causing disaffection within a united and formidable military.
Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement, said, the report could best be described as a total dissonance and appearance with the virtues and symbol of national unity, which the NA and indeed the Armed Forces of Nigeria represent.
According to him, “The Nigerian Army has noted with dismay, a mischievous and systematic smear campaign by Sahara Reporters, aimed at inciting troops, heating up the polity and destabilizing the country through the spurious, baseless and false alarm on corruption, nepotism, ethnic and religious bigotry within the Nigerian Army (NA). The report also contained some unimaginable slurs targeted at denigrating and demonizing the procedure for the selection of competent troops for Peace Support Operations (PSO), which has over the years earned the NA very well deserved encomiums and an enviable status in the comity of nations in global defence, as a professional, hard-fighting, and disciplined institution”.
He noted that considering the unprofessional and irresponsible manner in which the smear allegations were concocted against the NA, it clearly depicts a delusional perception and an abysmal bereftment of the slightest clue on routine processes of deployment exercises in the NA.
This incorrigible attitude, he said, has only further crystalized the inordinate desire of Sahara Reporters to incite mayhem and breakdown of law and order in a concerted effort to engender violence and destabilize the nation, through devious desperate and self-serving machinations.
Gen. Nwachukwu said, the deliberate falsehood and noxious narratives orchestrated by the online media were to adorn the Nigerian Army in an unfitting garb of infamy calculated to whip up unnecessary aspersion to distract the NA.
“The online news report could have been ignored given its pedigree of unprofessional and yellow page journalism, however, the unacceptable falsehood being propagated demands clarification, in the interest of well-meaning Nigerians and in honour of selfless officers and soldiers, who have continued to pay the price of defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation and global peace.
It is on record that officers and soldiers of the NA under the current leadership like never before, have witnessed exceptional positive changes in the morale, fighting spirit and physical components of the force. It is therefore crucial to state in very clear terms, that posting and redeployment in various formations and units, including the Army Headquarters is a routine exercise, aimed at ensuring that the NA is effectively manned for operational efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, over the years, the NA has been very firm with the criteria for selection of those to serve in the PSOs, which include, that personnel must have participated in the ongoing counter-terrorism counter-insurgency operations in the North East for at least 2 years, among other criteria,” he said.
In case the online media and those who fed it all the lies it published do not know, the Army spokesperson said that
it is on record that the NA has never had it so good, given the quantum of combat and logistics equipment that have been injected into the theatres of operations, a circumstance that has evidently turned the tide against the complex array of threats facing the nation.
In conclusion, Gen Nwachukwu urged all personnel of the NA to remain steadfast and unswayed by the antics of unpatriotic elements, who for selfish gains want to plunge the nation into chaos.
