The Defence Headquarters has tackled some terrorists who recently claimed that its celebrated achievements were untrue.
The terrorists had in a viral video boasted that their leaders which the military claimed to have killed are still alive.
The terrorists also said those arrested by the military were innocent citizens.
The terrorists’ assertions came in response to the military’s claim that it killed over 9000 terrorists and 20 sect commanders, as well as arrested over 6,000 other bandits in the last one year.
However, speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Buba Edward, challenged the terrorists to provide concrete evidence that the reported deaths of their commanders are false.
He noted that the military had released the names of several terrorist Commanders and leaders killed during the ongoing operations across the country.
Buba added that the terrorists lacked integrity and made the viral video to launder their image based on depletion within their ranks.
He said, “The military has consistently released names of several terrorist Commanders and leaders killed as a result of ongoing operations across the country. Recall that we are dealing with vicious terrorists who kill innocent citizens unprovoked.
“These groups of people lack integrity and are merely desperate to save their image based on depletion within their ranks. It is mere propaganda on the part of these terrorists. Accordingly, we challenge the terrorists to show evidence of terrorist leaders we killed, that they claim have not been killed.”
Commenting, a security expert, Lekan Jackson-Ojo described the action by the terrorists as “self-consolation”, adding that their assertions were to impress their sponsors.
He said, “If you have studied terrorist activities very well you will understand that they thrive on publicity and they do that through spreading propaganda. With what they have done, it is obvious that they are not comfortable with the ongoing operations of the military. What they are doing is called self-consolation.
Another security expert, Nnamdi Chife, said the terrorists were only trying to weaken the actions taken against them by the government and security forces.
He said, “The government and the security forces have recorded some achievements against the terrorists, I believe they are trying to deflate these actions that have been taken against them.”