Army Denies Abandoning Wounded Soldiers in North-East

• Describes ICIRC report as ‘mudslinging’

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Nigerian Army has denied reports by International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) that it abandoned some soldiers wounded in the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in the North-East.

The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, in a rejoinder on Wednesday, said the “allegation is not true”.

Usman said “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a 5 part campaign of calumny by “The Cable”, an online medium in which it serialized what they described as undercover story of how wounded soldiers were abandoned by the Nigerian Army, the government and the Nigerian society by reporters of ICIR”.

He noted that apart from questioning the motive of the medium, it is pertinent to state that most of narrations were outright falsehood and calculated attempt to cause disaffection amongst personnel and create an impression that they care about the well being of troops more than the Nigerian Army, the government and the nation.

According to him, this is far from the truth as the report failed to update their previous knowledge and impression about the Nigerian Army, neither did they avail themselves the benefit of the current and true situation of things in the Service.

He stressed that the Nigerian Army has given all organisations and individuals the opportunity to clear any doubt through the various Army Headquarters Department, formations and units and in particular, the Directorate of Army Public Relations and the Department of Civil Military Affairs.

Unfortunately, he said, these under cover agents failed to availed themselves with such opportunity.

He stated: “No country would tolerate the attitude of subversive elements such as the ICIR and its partner medium, The Cable, especially at the very critical national security situation. They want to demoralize and instigate the soldiers to reverse the gains made in the fight against terrorism and insurgency.

“Some of the stories being narrated by the medium could better be described as orchestrated campaign of calumny, otherwise how else could one describe their fabrication about the alleged abandonment of a soldier by his imaginary commander as stated in one of their narrations?”

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