Foreign elements facilitate sale of weapons to terrorists – Coalition alleges

A coalition of Nigerian Civil Society Organisations led by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has alleged that some foreign elements are now helping arms suppliers to sell more weapons to terrorists in Nigeria.

The Coalition also accused the foreign elements of fanning the embers of hatred against the Nigerian security agencies, especially the Army by peddling false or exaggerated accusations supposedly to weaken the security system in its fight against the rampaging terrorists.

“As you all are aware, Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa attacks against government and security forces and civilians in Northeast, Nigeria have resulted in deaths, injuries, abductions, and the capture and destruction of property,” the Coalition noted in a press conference in Abuja on Friday

“Worrisome is that the Boko Haram attacks did not discriminate between civilians and government officials, whereas ISIS-WA generally but not always, focused attacks on government and security forces.

“The implementation of the Nigerian military’s “super camp” strategy, which began in 2019, was designed to stem losses when terrorists overran forward-operating bases. As a defensive military strategy, the decision to consolidate the posture into super camps is working.

“Sadly, some foreign media elements, fanning the embers of hatred against the Nigerian Army are peddling false or exaggerated accusations supposedly to weaken the Nigerian Army and help arms supplies to sell more weapons to terrorists.

“We have privileged information that… a foreign media platform is planning a sinister story on the Nigerian war on terror.

“They want to raise allegations of secret abortion clinics in North East whereby over 200 kids born through the rape of captured women by Boko haram commanders were aborted without the permission of the Women who were raped..”

The Coalition said the military is also being accused of decimating children of Boko haram fighters and is saying they will file a petition to the ICC.

“They accuse the Nigerian Army of running these abortion clinics and mass burials of kids killed deliberately by the Army but gave no concrete evidence of where those mass graves are located,” it added.

We, the Coalition of Civil Society organizations are very concerned about …the foreign media plotting to circulate the story which will undermine Nigeria’s national security.

The Coalition recalled that the said medium had recently hastily accused Russia of being responsible for the missile incident that killed two people in Polish territory which turned out that they were missiles fired by Ukraine to stop Russian bombs.

“Many foreign media have shifted to a point where they want to publish stories that sell, looking at how much they will get out of the story without minding more about who is affected or who is not affected. That is why you find many of them sensationalize issues instead of reporting for the good,” the Coalition lamented

“The Nigerian Army deserves the gratitude and commendation of the nation and the international society, not this sinister plot by Reuters to distract and weaken efforts in the fight against terrorism.

Again, the sponsors of this campaign of falsehood and calumny must not be allowed to achieve their evil plans. If we sit back and fold our arms whilst this evil is allowed to fester, then we will be shooting ourselves in the foot destroying the achievements the Nigerian Army has made so far against terrorism.

“We are by this statement calling on the Nigerian Government to warn against foreign media stoking embers of hatred against the Nigerian Army. Reuters is on the vanguard of destroying the credibility of the Nigerian Army with unsubstantiated propaganda, which is enough to undermine our national security.

“Successive Chiefs of Army Staff and especially Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai during his 5-year stint, did a lot to mainstream promotion and protection of human rights in the daily operations of the Army.

“Unequivocally, the allegations of human rights abuses against the Nigerian Army, particularly in the conduct of counterinsurgency operation were issues of great concern to TY Buratai, who ensured that they took various actions to guarantee that rights violations by Nigerian Army personnel are fully curtailed.

“Therefore, we urge the current t CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF to note that it is important that some of these significant approaches introduced as aforementioned towards improving the consistent dialogues between the Army and the civil society and the then Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai are adopted by the current hierarchies of the armed forces of Nigeria if the military ever hope to win the hearts and minds of the people of Nigeria.”