The Nigerian Army has stated that report of Boko Haram terrorists killing five people and hoisting their flag in Adamawa community was false and misleading, describing the story as an attempt to discredit its numerous successes recorded against the terrorists.
A statement issued on Monday by the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu stressed that certain facts must be reported with dignity as “a large number of civilian populace have returned to their ancestral homes where farming, fishing and other economic activities have commenced”.
He emphasized that the successes so far recorded against the Boko Haram sect in the North-East were internationally acknowledged, stating that the reported hoisting of flag by the terrorists were meant “to erode all the gains the Nigerian Army and other security agencies have so far achieved”.
“The Nigerian Army wishes to advise media practitioners to always cross check their facts before rushing to the press,” the statement added.
Similarly, the Save Humanity Advocacy Centre, SHAC, has described the report alleging that some elements of the Boko Haram sects are active and currently hoisting their flags in some parts of the northeastern region of Nigeria as fake, ridiculous and totally unacceptable in the face of efforts by stakeholders to relocate IDPs back to their abodes.
The group said the false alarm was an attempt to frustrate the ongoing efforts to relocate and rehabilitate the Internally Displaced Persons back to their homes.
SHAC said the information was not true as it remains a figment of the imagination of those merchants of death and profiteers of crisis who have vowed to see to the destabilisation of the country.
Lawrence Audu, Director of Communications, SHAC, at a press conference on Sunday and obtained by our reporter, said the false report was capable of putting the lives of humanitarian workers in danger and equally thwarting efforts made towards relocating internally displaced persons back home.
The group, therefore, called on Nigerians and the international organization to disregard such heinous and unbridled stories being churned out by Boko Haram cyber thugs to discourage the Federal Government and the Nigerian people from seeing to the final end of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
He said, “For the records, the Nigerian Military has won the war and no Jupiter can reverse the successes achieved even if they are happy or not. Efforts are ongoing and credible humanitarian organisations have continued to work with the IDPs of which many have returned home.
“At this juncture, we call on all Nigerians to always verify the sources of their information before rebroadcasting because statistics show that fake news and rumours have been largely responsible for the escalation of crisis in most parts of the country.
“Nigerians must be aware that one major component of terror is information flow. Terrorists like ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab and their collaborators create dreadful images to instil fear followed by hate messages which travel like wildfire. Since negative news appeals more to the human senses, they are shared without proper verification of its authenticity.
“Nigerians must desist from such acts since it helps the author achieve their aims very cheaply while those sharing achieve nothing but a society divided against itself along ethnic and religious lines.”
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