The Nigerian Army has again questioned an Online News mediums Sahara Reporters on an ill-informed publication published on 11 May 2021 where it was alleged that Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province had distributed Ramadan welfare packages to some residents of Borno and Yobe States.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by Army Spokesman, Brig. General Mohammed Yerima, the million-dollar question here is why the choice of Sahara Reporters as the medium to propagate such an unfounded piece that failed every test of professional journalism?
"Could it be that the terrorists find the media outfit fertile enough for propagating their devilish stories?" he said.
Yerima also added that these are questions that demand answers from the publishers of this piece of disinformation.
"The article went on to give a breakdown of the food items distributed including cash which the publisher alleged was meant to entice the locals to join the terrorist ranks.
"The article then switched to speak on the 2019 report of International Crisis Group which tended to pour encomiums on the terrorist recruitment system since breaking away from the Abubakar Shekau's faction.
"Unfortunately the article did not mention any specific location where the alleged distribution took place", Yerima explained.
The Army spokesman added that the Nigerian Army being a professional organisation decided to look at the article with every seriousness to make intelligence out of it.
However, our analysis established that there was nothing substantial about the claim except that it was a hurriedly packaged piece of propaganda that was meant to distract the populace away from the recent defeats being suffered by the terrorists, he said.
Yerima stressed that it is a notorious fact that the terrorists at various times have made several attempts to make the lives of the residents of these states miserable through the Ramadan season which was met with the overwhelming response from the troops of Operation Hadin Kai.
"The most recent of such being their failure to sneak into Maiduguri on 11 May 2021 same day this ill-conceived article was published.
"The fate of the terrorists that made that audacious attempt is already public knowledge.
"The author of this article displayed his/her clear lack of situational awareness by getting the designation of the various terrorist groups moduled up.
"In the self-styled amateurish publication, there was no single mention of any community that the said distribution took place which is indicative of the fact that there was indeed no community or village where such activity took place.
"The writer consciously omitted such an important part knowing that once a name is attached to the publication it would be much easier to unravel the motive behind it, which is simply to mislead the unsuspecting readers", he said.
Brig. Gen Mohammed Yerima also added revealed that a team of eagle-eyed analysts of the Nigerian Army went further to critically examine the pictures attached to this malicious publication and discovered that they were simply stage-managed in typical terrorists-styled propaganda.
"The uncoordinated director of the photoshoot presented the pictures according to his IQ and decided to measure the standard of the Nigerian public from his own personal standing.
"He used two poorly constructed shacks sited in the wilderness in multiple scenes by simply changing the arrangement of items and introducing different faces to make it look like an existing structure".
The army spokesman further explained that He later posted a truck loaded with bags and a few terrorists on it parked in the middle of nowhere.
Yerima opined that a closer look at the background of all the pictures clearly showed an empty forest with no signs of human habitation or activity accept the few terrorists and some children that must have forcefully taken away from their parents.
These facts, therefore, met every known style of the terrorist propaganda".
"The Nigerian Army, therefore, calls on the general public to disregard this article as it is nothing but a tissue of lies aimed at misleading them", he said.
The Nigerian Army under the leadership of the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru will continue to maintain the pressure on the remnants of terrorists hibernating in the forests around the North-Eastern borders until they are completely obliterated.