By Abu Duniya
A vocal northern group, Arewa Youths Integrity Forum has termed the new video footage of Boko Haram claiming it hasn’t surrendered as the handiwork of some disgruntled Nigerians who are bent on ensuring that the insurgency continues.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, National President of the Group, Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar said with the recently released video, it is obvious that there a crack within the ranks of the Boko Haram terrorists.
Describing these individuals as “war entrepreneurs”, Abubakar said “the war entrepreneurs that defrauded the Goodluck Jonathan administration to the tune of billions of naira with the claims of negotiation and ceasefire are back to their game of wanting to keep exploiting Boko Haram for monetary gains”
He said it was a fortunate thing that the Nigerian Army and indeed the military dismissed the indirect call for a truce and pressed on with President Muhammadu Buhari’s orders as Commander in Chief to wipe out the terrorists.
He said, “They will use the two videos as compelling argument to draw the federal government into engaging them as brokers and will thus pocket the proceeds of the media they had carefully set up. The nation must not be led down this path again.
“Furthermore, an equally possible facet is that Boko Haram sponsors, patrons and benefactors who want to rubbish the Army and the Federal Government used paid actors for either of the videos or for both. The intention would be for the Federal Government the Army to become complacent and engage in premature celebration of a seriously battered Boko Haram and consequently slowing down the offensive against the murderers who will then have time to regroup and receive arms and logistics to take on the military.”
He appealed to the Army and the Federal Government not to be lulled into any false sense of achievement by the kind of trick that Boko Haram just pulled so that it will not repeat the mistakes of the previous administration and leaderships that were dealing with paid actors while the terrorists continued on rampage.
“The only surrender that Nigerians will recognise is that of Boko Haram members or leaders that surrender or hand themselves to our troops. Surrendering by video or any other indirect methods is not acceptable. The crimes they committed were committed in person so they should also surrender in person. Those who want to continue fighting the Nigerian state have made their choices as enemy combatants and the rules of engagement are clear,” he said.
He called on the NIA, DIA to use its wealth of expertise to review the hardware displayed in the second video with a view to establishing country of origin.
The group also drew the attention of the Nigerians to a deliberate and calculated campaign of calumny aimed at misleading the public and cause disaffection among troops.
This, according to information from the Nigerian Army is being circulated in the social media by a faceless and obviously subversive group named “EASTERN RADIO”.
The Nigerian Army said the group created and posted a story titled “Tribal War at Army Barracks, 82 Division Enugu Three Soldiers Feared Dead” on various social media platforms.
“In the write up, they alleged that there was an altercation in an unnamed barracks in 82 Division over nomination for “peacekeeping operations” which led to exchange of gunfire among imaginary troops that resulted in loss of lives. Apart from obvious flaws and inconsistency in the narration, the Nigerian Army wishes to emphatically state that no such incident occurred anywhere in the Nigerian Army, let alone 82 Division. In fact, the alleged reported incident existed only in the obviously negatively skewed minds of the authors of such fabrication.
“The intent and goals of this band of miscreants is to cause distrust amongst own troops and the country’s populace at large, which unknown to them is an exercise in futility because the Nigerian Army is cohesive. Their methodology is to employ such campaign of calumny and distortion of an established reign of peaceful, harmonious and esprit-de-corps culture in 82 Division and the entire Nigerian Army. However, the campaign is a failed one as the entire Nigerian Army remains indivisible, unprovoked and not gullible to such cheap and heinous insinuations.
“The general public is therefore please requested to discountenance the false story of EASTERN RADIO and their affiliated secessionist groups as there is no iota of truth in the story.
“We would like to inform the public that the 82 Division Nigerian Army is intact in all its locations and deployments, same goes for all the various formations, units, cantonments and barracks of the Nigerian Army.
Above all, the Nigerian Army remains committed to providing aid to civil authority as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended) and wishes to assure the public of the Chief of Army Staff’s unalloyed commitment to protect lives and property whenever called upon to do so in line with extant provisions of the law.
We wish to also reassure all well meaning Nigerians that the Nigerian Army remains a national institution which emphasizes peace, unity and mutual co-existence devoid of any sentiments or such variables as ethnic, tribe or religious differences. Any attempt by any individual or group of persons to associate the military and indeed the Nigerian Army with such will be a total waste of time, energy and resources. We are proud professionals bound by discipline, unflinching love, loyalty, espirit-de-corps and love for our colleagues and our country. We would remain focussed and would not be distracted by irritating campaigns of calumny or fabricated lies by some unscrupulous elements.
It is therefore very imperative at this point to warn all those mischief makers to desist from these unpatriotic and obviously subversive acts in any guise.
