The Nigerian Army has urged members of the public to disregard `doctored video’ meant to denigrate the professional conduct of troops in the Southeastern part of the country.
A statement by Army Spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, on Saturday, said the attention of the Nigerian Army had been drawn to video footage released by some individuals on Youtube to denigrate troops.
He said that the video featured blurred images of some persons dressed in green camouflage destroying farmland in an undisclosed location.
According to him, in an attempt to denigrate the reputation and image of the Nigerian Army, authors of the video mischievously attributed the action of the persons to the military.
The army spokesman said this was done “by falsely claiming they are soldiers and invariably personnel of the Nigerian Army.’’
“However, following a fact-finding investigation on the video by subjecting it to credible reverse image, it was discovered that the video was first published on YouTube channel “BIAFRA BOY”.
“The investigation also revealed that the image of the men in green camouflage was deliberately blurred to conceal their identity from viewers.
“Similarly, the authors failed to identify the location, community, or Local Government Area the incident occurred.
“Given these facts, it is apparent that the video footage is deliberate propaganda by Eastern Security Network (ESN).
“To bring the reputation and image of the Nigerian Army to disrepute by portraying personnel of the Nigerian Army as enemies of the people.
“Members of the general public are please urged to be wary of such negative propaganda materials and subject them to thorough scrutiny.
“We, therefore, urge the public to please discountenance the propaganda video as it is the machination of mischief-makers targeting the Nigerian military,’’ he said.
Nwachukwu reassured the general public that the Nigerian Army would continue to operate professionally regardless of all divisive propaganda.
He assured all peace-loving Nigerians of the Nigerian Army’s commitment to aid civil authorities in the containment of security challenges in line with constitutional provisions.
