Despite a surprising about-face on the publication of a video footage depicting Nigerian soldiers as guilty of human rights abuses in their war against Boko Haram Islamist insurgents, international news agency, Reuters, has nevertheless received flak from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Reuters had published the video, posted online by the sect, only to pull it down from its website afterwards, claiming its own independent investigations could not authenticate the contents of the video. The agency had similarly published a story alleging that the military killed some civilians in Maiduguri. For both false stories, the Defence Headquarters has demanded “an unreserved apology.”
Addressing Defence correspondents at the Defence Headquarters, spokesman of the institution, Col Mohammed Yerima, flanked by Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Bolaji Koleosho and his Air Force counterpart, Commodore Yusuf Anas, refuted the story, imploring the media to be wary of sensational reporting at the expense of the national security.
“In spite of the fact that Reuters has already withdrawn the malicious report, citing lack of authenticity, the Defence Headquarters wishes to protest in very strong terms, this pattern of reportage by a section of Nigerian and International media in which the time honoured practice of getting both sides of the story, are jettisoned on the altar of sensationalism,” Yerima said.
“That video clip is not new. It was shown on the Aljazeera Network on 4th February 2010, alleging [members of the] Nigerian Army were killing civilians in Jos. As a result of the Aljazeera Network report, Director, Army Public Relations had cause to make a press release debunking the allegation which appeared on pages 4 and 9 of Daily Trust and Daily Sun newspapers of Mon 8th February 2010 respectively.
He said the general public was reassured through the press release that the soldiers depicted in the video clips were not Nigerian.
“Contrary to Reuters’ report and the video clip, the Nigerian Army does not use the type of vehicle shown on Internal Security Operations and especially not in JTF Operations,” he added. “The vegetation in the video clip is not the typical vegetation obtainable in Maiduguri or in any arid region in Nigeria.”
Yerima further argued that Nigerian soldiers on Joint Operations never use belts over their camouflage uniforms, saying the practice is only commonplace among Abuja-based Guards Brigade.
Continuing, he said, “That same video clip purportedly shot two weeks ago was used as the cover page of the Amnesty International report of 8th November 2012. This, to a large extent, corroborates our conviction that there is a planned conspiracy to tarnish the image of the Joint Task Force in Borno state.
“This unacceptable trend must stop. The Defence headquarters demands an unreserved apology from Reuters International and its reporters, which must be given the same level of publicity that was given to the malicious report.”
The Defence Headquarters equally warned Reuters International to protect its global esteem from “some disgruntled forces, both within and outside the country,” who are bent on discrediting the integrity and professionalism of the Military.
