The Defence Headquarters has condemned a
recent report released by Amnesty
International (AI) on activities of the Nigerian
army in the North-East region.
Amnesty International who alleged that
troops of the Nigerian army razed
down villages and unlawfully detained locals
in a rescue operation, were accused of
deliberately supporting the acts of terrorism
perpetrated against Nigeria by the Boko
Haram and the Islamic State of West African state (ISWAP) terror groups.

In a statement released by the Defence
Headquarters’ Acting Director Defence
Information Brigadier General Onyema
Nwachukwu, the non-governmental
organization were accused of undermining
Nigeria’s Military campaign against terrorism
in the North East.

The statement reads;
“The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has
taken cognizance of yet another
falsified report by Amnesty
International (AI) in a campaign of
calumny targeting the Nigerian
Military and deliberately supporting
the callous acts of terrorism
perpetuated by Boko Haram Terrorists
(BHTs) and Islamic State of West
African Province (ISWAP).

“This inglorious campaign is contained
in a recent report alleging
employment of unlawful tactics of
razing down villages and unlawful
detention of locals by troops. This is
line with the AIs usual mannerism and
tenacious efforts aimed at disparaging
the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN).

“The Defence Headquarters wishes to
state unambiguously that the
allegations being touted by AI are
nothing but a betrayal of its lack of
in-depth knowledge of the goings-on
in the North East (NE) theatre of
operation.

“It is expedient to state that troops of
Operation Lafiya Dole who are
conducting Counter Terrorism and
Counter Insurgency Operations in the
NE do not employ arson as an
operational tactic. It is a well-known
fact, going by the modus operandi of
BHTs, that they have more often than
not engaged in the atrocious acts of
looting and burning of villages, as well
as destroying infrastructures.

“It therefore, beats ones imagination
that AI is attributing these atrocities to
AFN troops who are legitimately
defending the country guided by
extant rules of engagement and
operational codes of conduct.

“AI must understand the fact that
Nigeria is at war against terrorism in
the NE and that the troops have a
constitutional mandate to protect lives
and property, even if it means
conducting an evacuation to save and
secure lives of civilians in the conflict.

Protecting civilians by evacuating them
from the line of fire during combat is
not a violation of the international law
of conflict or a war crime.

“It is rather a commendable effort by
the troops to prevent collateral
damage during combat. Our troops
should therefore be commended for
making deliberate efforts to evacuate
civilians in order to protect their lives
and property.

“It is also crucial to point out, that
troops deployed to fight terrorism in
the NE do not attack or raze down
villages, communities or settlements,
rather they launch offensive on
terrorists’ camps, enclaves and hide
outs.

“Based on actionable intelligence,
persons who provide logistics and
other forms of support to the
terrorists are arrested and subjected
to thorough investigation by a
combined team of professionals
drawn from the intelligence
community of the Armed Forces and
other security agencies. Anyone not
found culpable is not held in custody
for further investigations.

“AI must therefore put an end to its
reckless distortion of facts in its
desperate bid to satisfy its
puppeteers by undermining Nigeria’s
Military campaign against terrorism in
the NE.

“We urge members of the public to
please discountenance AIs report, as
it is not a true and realistic reflection
of troops’ counter terrorism operation
in the NE

Source:- Daily Post