The Defence Headquarters has raised the alarm over what it termed plans to tarnish the image of the Nigerian ArmY by the deliberate circulation of falsified audio visual materials.
A statement by Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade said Defence Headquarters ” has been alerted of a plot by some interest groups to embark on a renewed campaign aimed at attracting international condemnation and indictment of the Nigerian military and its operations in the Northern part of the country. The campaign which is to rely heavily on doctored and falsified audio visual materials, some of which are already trending in the social media, is to be coordinated and funded by a prominent political leader whose state is presently under the State of Emergency.
“The details of the plan which is already being fine-tuned by a group of media practitioners, is to be presented for the final ratification and funding by the political figure. The design is expected to forcefully whip up sentiments of genocide allegedly targeted against a particular religious group. The planners of this multi-media crusade also hope to use it to gain some mileage in the drive to secure international attention as they have not achieved this sufficiently despite previous efforts. The programme which is also meant to reinforce the ongoing media campaign against the military was adopted as an alternative by those who are bent on politicizing the ongoing counter terrorists operations in the northern part of the country.
“It will be recalled that a newspaper, apparently testing the waters, last week published some of the doctored pictures which the Defence Headquarters instantly repudiated, pointing out that they do not represent activities or operations of the Nigerian military.
“This Headquarters wishes to reiterate its rejection of pictures and video footages from unverifiable sources claiming to reflect activities or so called atrocities purportedly perpetrated by Nigerian security forces. They do not reflect or depict the true state of affairs or operations of Nigerian military or any of the security forces. The public is advised to watch out and not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by these acts of infamy orchestrated by this desperate group.
“Once again, it must be emphasized that the dastardly acts of terrorism are against all Nigerians and all peace loving people all over the world. No amount of propaganda by apologists of terror group can justify the evil acts of terrorism by attempting to cast the Nigerian military and security forces in bad light.”