Military Keeps Mum On Niger, Nasarawa Airstrikes  

Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said it would refrain from making comments on the recent incident of miscalculated airstrikes in Nasarawa and Niger states.

This, the military high command said, was to avoid taking issue with some persons on the matter, particularly state governors.

The director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Musa Danmadami, disclosed this at the bi-weekly briefing of the military yesterday, in Abuja .

He, however, said the military would not be discouraged, adding that they would continue to go about their duties professionally.

Danmadami said, “On Nasarawa and Benue, we are not going to dwell on the issue; we will leave it the way it is. We are not going to join issues with anybody on those incidents.The chief executive officers of those states have spoken on the matter. We are not going to talk much on this issue. Like I said earlier, operations are being carried out in the length and breadth of the country, so I do not want to dwell on this incident or what is being reported in the press.

“But what I can tell you is that we are very professional in the conduct of our operations.They are also intelligence-driven. Also, our code of conduct and standard of operation are in tandem with international best practices. I can assure you that we would continue to conduct operations in line with this, irrespective of what people are saying. For Nasarawa and Benue, the governor has spoken on the issue and we would not want to go contrary to what he has said. If there are subsequent issues on that you will definitely hear from us.”

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Major General Danmadami also gave assurance that elections in the South Eastern part of the country would hold in a peaceful environment.

He said, “Operations are already going in the South East; the operations have been rejuvenated; we have both kinetic and non-kinetic in place. During the last election, what happened happened and election went on in the region; the same thing will happen for 2023. We cannot deny there won’t be one or two incidents, but elections would happen in the South East and any other region in the country.”

The defence spokesman also said non-state actors are not in control of territories at the moment.

He said, “There is no territory under the control of the terrorists. Yes, we have pockets of them in several part of the country and that is why we conduct operations on a daily basis. On election, the armed forces of Nigeria would continue to remain apolitical. The police are the lead agency when it comes to elections in Nigeria but we will continue to play our supportive roles.”