The Nigerian Army has condemned circulation of pictures and videos of gory images on social media, saying it is misinformation and propaganda by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, made this known in a statement in Enugu on Thursday.
Musa said that the illegal group was using the images for falsehood and hate speech to portray the Army and other security agencies in bad light.
He said that the stunts were specially targeted at the South-East and intended to truncate the successes of Exercise Egwu Eke III also known as Python Dance 3.
According to him, the posting and circulation of the disgusting videos and pictures is a wicked plot and deliberate campaign targeted at smearing the reputation of the military and other security agencies.
The army spokesman said that the intention of the peddlers of those images was to insinuate that the bodies were victims of security clampdown in parts of the country, especially in the South-East.
He said, “the Nigerian Army has observed with dismay that various social media platforms, of recent, have been inundated with gory images and horrific videos. The videos are of few recycled corpses dumped at roadsides and refuse sites in Obingwa-Asa-Aba axis of Abia and other targeted areas in the South-East”.
“Members of the proscribed IPOB have been alleged to be behind the violence-inciting posts, apparently to create panic and tension among the public in their ill-motive towards free, fair and credible general elections. Some of the images and videos analysed by the intelligence services show that most of the corpses were suspected to be victims of road accidents, jungle justice or ritual killings”.
“None of the images or videos could be attributed to any military operation as there were no footage to indicate so. While the Nigerian Army will ensure that the peddlers of such fake news and hate speech that could create insecurity in the country are nabbed for prosecutions, the public is urged to ignore such wicked and sickening propaganda.’’
Musa called on health and emergency agencies at the state and local government levels to be proactive in ensuring adequate evacuation of corpses of victims of road accidents, ritual killings and jungle justice in communities.
“It is also of security concern that the dumping of abandoned corpses of loved ones in unorthodox mortuaries is becoming rampant”. (NAN)
