BY Fredrick Nwabufo
There is an ongoing 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 defence headquarters alleged on Friday.
According to director of defence information, Major-Gen. Chris Olukolade, the campaign will rely heavily on doctored and falsified audio visual materials, some of which are already trending in the social media. It 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 are already being fine-tuned by a group of media practitioners, is to be presented for the final ratification and funding by the political figure,” Olukolade said.
“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.”
Olukolade said that while the programme is meant to reinforce the ongoing media campaign against the military, it was also adopted as an alternative by those who are bent on politicising the ongoing counter terrorists operations in the northern part of the country.
He recalled that “a newspaper, apparently testing the waters”, last week published some “doctored” pictures, which the defence headquarters instantly repudiated, because they did 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,” he asserted.
“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.”
He emphasised that the dastardly acts of terrorism are against all Nigerians and all peace-loving people all over the world, saying: “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.”
Since the declaration of a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States in May 2013, the Nigerian military has, on a number of occasions, been accused of extrajudicial killings.
On March 31, 2014, for example, Amnesty International released a report claiming that since the start of 2014, more than 1,500 people have been killed in north-eastern Nigeria, due to Boko Haram attacks on the one hand and “human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them.”
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