By Bashir Adefaka
The Headquarters Nigerian Army says report in a section of the country’s press that the military was going to shutdown on Friday over the pandemic Coronavirus is not only fake but also mischievous.
Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Colonel Sagir Musa, made this dismissal in a statement dated 25 March 2020 he sent by WhatsApp to The DEFENDER on Wednesday.
Colonel Musa, announcing dissociation of the Army from such report, described it as false, speculative and vexatious publication designed by certain mischievous elements to create chaos, panic and disaffection in the society.
He said this attitude of those elements in the media served not national but selfish and ulterior motives of its promoters.
To put the record straight, the Army’s mouthpiece said, “the document being quoted was a proactive directive for the Nigerian Army to prepare for possible escalation of the COVID -19 based on the happenings around the world on the pandemic.”
The DEFENDER reports that it was long expected that some Nigerians being a different specie of humans would definitely misfire because they exist as Nigerians in the physical but as enemies not only of the nation and its progress but also, more profoundly, of themselves in the real sense of it. No wonder that in a sensitive and dangerous period like this, some of them could purvey fake news with intent to compromise the very security architecture that the nation could mount against furthee smuggling of Coronavirus and any similar such disease to the country.
Colonel Sagir Musa said: “It has come to the notice of the Nigerian Army and the General public some misleading publications in a section of the media with the title “Federal Government to Enforce Military Lockdown on Friday.”
“The Nigerian Army wishes to dissociate itself from such false, speculative and vexatious publication designed by certain mischievous elements to create chaos, panic and disaffection in the society that could only serve the ulterior motives of its promoters.
“To put the record straight, the document being quoted was a proactive directive for the Nigerian Army to prepare for possible escalation of the COVID -19 based on the happenings around the world on the pandemic.
“The misinterpretation that Government is locking down the entire country and pulling out the Army by Friday 27 March 2020 is utterly false and baseless. The NA considers the publication and negative interpretation being given the content of the Classified document containing information meant for the Nigerian Army personnel as a violation of the Official Secret Act.
“The NA will continue to be professional, proactive and responsive in support of the Constitution, Democracy and Government of NIGERIA in line with its constitutional mandate of providing aid to civil authority when called upon to do so. The NA will leave no stone unturned to prepare to support the civil authority in times of emergencies of national magnitude.
“The mischief of some unpatriotic few will not dissuade the Nigerian Army from working with sister services, the Nigeria Police and other security agencies to keep NIGERIA Safe.
“The NA calls on the general public to discountenance the publication going round that the Federal Government is locking down NIGERIA by Friday 27 March 2020 on the basis of the content of the directive to military formations to take proactive measures to prepare for possible call out to assist civil authority in the case of COVID-19 getting worse in the Country.
“You are please requested to bring this information to the notice of the general public to correct the misinformation,” The Army Spokesman said.
In the meantime, The DEFENDER’s checks revealed that some dark agents are working hard to exploit the current global pandemic to advance their evil plans for Nigeria and the Muhammadu Buhari government as well as the Army for it’s insistence that they will never succeed.
This is as a source asked: “If not that some of the cases of Coronavirus recorded so far has been triggered by compromise somewhere by the same agents that have politicised every aspect of life of Nigeria since 2015 politics till now, how does it translate to military lockdown, the patriotic directive to military formations to take proactive measures to prepare to assist civil authority in the case of COVID-19 getting worse in the Country?”
