Army dismisses reports of alleged supply of inferior armoured vehicles

By SUMAILA OGBAJE

The Nigerian Army has dismissed a report by an online medium that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, threatened to blacklist a Chinese firm over alleged supply of inferior armoured vehicles.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Yerima, in a statement on Saturday, said that the online report claimed that the firm supplied inferior armoured vehicles to Nigerian army

Yerima said that the entirety of the said story was a figment of the author’s imagination.

He said that Attahiru did not at any time or in any event made any comment nor had any interview on the subject either with the author or anybody for that matter.

According to him, the story is false, misleading and a deliberate fabrication ostensibly published to serve a yet to be determined motive.

“Whatever the motive is, we consider this publication as not only unprofessional but very unfair to the Chief of Army staff.

“We demand from the publishers of African Military Blog.com, immediate retraction of the concocted story as it runs against the grain of professional journalism to willfully and wrongfully attribute a story to an unsuspecting party.

“The Nigerian Army recognises and appreciates the indispensable partnership with the media in the quest for a secured, peaceful and progressive Nigeria.

“It is therefore, advisable that professionalism must guide the conduct of media practice,” he said.

Meanwhile, the affected medium, military Africa had since through its’ tweeter handle @militaryafrica on Saturday, tendered apologies to the Nigerian Army and retracted the said story.

“Our attention has been drawn to a particular article written by Ekene Lionel, and Titled: Norinco under fire for supplying inferior armoured vehicles to Nigeria.

“We’ll like to tender a sincere apologies those likely to be affected by the article, particularly the gallant troops of the Nigeria Army @HQNigerianArmy.

“After further investigation, we now understand that the article is truly false and inaccurate. With that, the article has been removed.

“Military Africa has always stood on the side of truth, factual, accurate and impartial defense news coverage,” it said. (NAN)