The Nigerian army has denied killing any protester belonging to the Indigenous People Of Biafra at their recent rally in Port Harcourt, rather accusing the group of making spurious and unfounded allegation, and molesting innocent citizens and passersby.

The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations sixth division, Colonel ‎Aminu Iliyasu, ‎yesterday ‎stated that on the said date, members of the group were mobilized from Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Cross River states for an alleged rally with dubious intent of molesting innocent citizens, intimidating passers-by and wrecking havoc on commuters thereby disturbing public peace, safety and security.

He explained that the choice of Port Harcourt as the epicentre of the protest has left much to be desired. According to him, it is however worthy to restate that one of the constitutional responsibilities of the Nigerian Army is to come to the aid of the civil authority whenever the need arises.
And in line with this constitutional mandate, troops of 29 Battalion Nigerian Army, were deployed in conjunction with other security agencies to prevent any loss of life or property with strict adherence to the established rules of engagement.

“Despite all provocative attempts occasioned by the stoning of security agents and the smashing of commuters’ windscreens by the violent protesters, troops refused to be cajoled into the criminal gang’s trap to fire a single shot. This is indicative of the troops’ total compliance with their rules of engagement. The violent protest was subsequently subdued with the use of tear gas and arrests were made by a sister security agency with no casualty recorded on either side.”
The army spokesperson said.

He decried as worrisome and disturbing for anyone to falsely accuse troops deployed in support of civil authority who conducted their duty professionally under the beaming lenses of cameras of allegedly killing 11 citizens of the country. A well observed trend of IPOB, according to him, is the malicious posting of old videos and pictures from their archives on social media platforms that has no bearing on their claims, to attract public sympathy and whip sentiments among the citizenry.

Despite the army’s claim of civility in their conduct under the beaming lenses of cameras, it never provided any video to substantiate that. And the photos and videos captured by the beaming lenses of the other side in the argument rather showed the army conducting their duty unprofessionally by forcing everyone to understand that they are the guys with the guns.