Insecurity: Vested interests working to subvert democracy -Army

The Nigerian Army yesterday said some vested interests are bent on using insecurity to scuttle and subvert the nation’s democracy. It warned that such people should not only desist but leave the army out of politics.

It also warned that appropriate legal actions would be taken against purveyors of fake news and those denigrating the army with all manner of publications over the recent attacks of Boko Haram terrorists on troops of 157 Battalion in Metele, Borno State.

The Army spokesman Brig Gen. Sani Usman in a statement said it smacks of mischief and ignorance for some people to continue denigrating the army over the recent setbacks in Metele in spite of the achievements of the military in degrading the terrorists in the past three years.

The statement reads in part: “The Nigerian Army has noted with great concern the deliberate and concerted efforts to mislead the public by some people through misinformation. Thus creating erroneous impression of the Nigerian Army through inaccurate and false publication of casualty figures on the unfortunate attacks on some of its locations in the Northeast.

“The latest of this worrisome development was the attack on our troops location at Metele, Borno State, in which some persons and media outlets continued to circulate various wrong accounts and inaccurate causality figures of own troops without efforts to verify from the military.

“This is coming at the heels of our release of 28th November 2018 in which we gave accurate details of the attacks and casualty figures in a bid to set the records straight and inform the public true account of things. We also promised to continuously carry the public along through accurate and timely information dissemination on operations and other activities of the Nigerian Army in the release.”

The statement deplored what it called “fake news aimed at denigrating the leadership of the Nigerian Army.”