By Kingsley Nwezeh
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), weekend, denied any link with a viral video circulating on social media suggesting the existence of mass graves of victims of military operations in Zamfara State.
It said, in a statement, that “a trending picture with caption “Alhamdulillah. ZamfaraMustSecure” and several other viral gory pictures and videos of dumping into mass grave of persons purported to have been killed in the ongoing military operations in the North-west and North-central geographical zones of the country.
“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 admitting that AFN is presently conducting a successful military operations against bandits and kidnappers in line with its constitutional roles, it said the operations were 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.
“The viral pictures being circulated have nothing in common with the ongoing operations. This callous action of linking ongoing operations with falsehood is deliberate and thus, seeks to tarnish the good image and reputation of the AFN. “For the record, the AFN conducts a fortnightly defence media operations brief in where 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”, it said.
The statement signed by Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Olufemi Sawyerr, urged the general public to disregard the gory pictures.
“The AFN will not rest on its oars in performing the constitutional mandate of ensuring that our nation remains safe and peaceful for all law abiding citizens”, it said.
