Nigeria denies purported protest by troops in NE state

Authority of the Nigerian Army has denied an online media report about a protest by a group of soldiers over lack of water and other logistics at Alagarno forest in restive northeast Borno State.

Spokesperson for the Army, Col. Sani Usman, who made this known in a statement made available to Xinhua on Sunday, described the report as false and misleading.

Usman said it was orchestrated and planted in the media by those sympathetic to the course of the insurgents.

The military spokesperson said that at no time did soldiers block the convoy of the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Brig.-Gen. Vincent Ezugwu, who visited the troops in the Alagarno forest.

Usman said though the troops had experienced some logistics challenges, they never behaved in the manner reported by the online medium.

"While acknowledging that indeed troops that captured the strategic forest of Alagarno experienced some logistics problem that included water shortage, which is normal in war situation, it is not true that the troops behaved in the manner reported," he said.

"If Alagarno is truly inaccessible, how did the gallant troops rout out the Boko Haram terrorists from the forest," he added.

"The concoction of this story and the release of yet another video by some remnants of Boko Haram terrorists could be more than mere coincidence," the army spokesman said.

According to Usman, the GOC on his visit to the troops' location took water and other items to them, contrary to the report.

He added that the GOC joined the troops in one of the clearance operations in the forest.

Usman called on journalists to always cross check their facts before filing their stories to avoid such factual errors.

He urged the public to disregard the story and continue to support the Nigerian Army in the fight to end terrorism in the country. Endit