Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh said
on Monday that his family remains under Boko Haram’s Islamic Caliphate,
denying ever sending any helicopter to his home
town in Adamawa State to
evacuate members of his family hours before the fall of the town to the
Boko Haram jihadists.
Vintim, the hometown of the CDS is one of the towns recently annexed by Boko Haram, as part of the ‘Islamic Caliphate’.
The
terrorists are still occupying the town. Some reports had indicated
that Badeh airlifted his family from the town before it finally fell to
terrorists.
But in a statement posted on its blog today, the
Nigerian Defence headquarters described as “reckless” assertions that
Badeh sent a military helicopter to evacuate members of his family just a
few hours before the fall of his home town to Boko Haram.
The full statement titled “No Helicopter Evacuated the CDS Family Members”, reads:
“The
attention of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has been drawn to an
article with the caption, “The Helicopters that evacuated CDS Badeh’s
family from Mubi: A lesson for All Nigerians” written by a certain Elvis
Iyorngurum and posted in an on-line news outlet, NewsRescue.com on the
6th of November, 2014.
“The said article which contained strings
of deliberate falsehood and spurious allegations claimed that few hours
before the attack on Mubi by the terrorists, the Chief of Defence Staff,
Air Chief Marshal AS Badeh flew in helicopters and evacuated his family
from the town and abandoned everyone else to their fate.
“While
the DHQ remains at a loss as to the motive for these unconscionable
fabrications, it is pertinent to quickly repudiate the false claim and
to state clearly that at no time did the CDS send any helicopter to
evacuate any of his family members before, during or after the attack on
his home town.
“Contrary to the claims by the author, the
helicopter that flew to Mubi was on an operational mission to reinforce
the ground troops in preparation of efforts to repel the attack.
“The helicopter did not convey any civilian or relation of the CDS as disdainfully insinuated in the article.
“Considering
the fact that the falsehood packaged against Air Chief Marshal Badeh by
Elvis has not only been mischievously and widely circulated, it has
been further made viral on the social media, it can no longer be
dismissed as one of those careless efforts in the campaign to tarnish
the name and integrity of this senior officer and the Armed Forces who
are doing their best to address the security situation in the country.
“The damage done by the fabrications contained in that article has not only personal, but national security implications.
“Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh as the Chief of Defence Staff has
uppermost in his heart, the interest of the entire citizens of Nigeria,
whom he swore to protect.
“Insinuating that the CDS is self-centred and insensitive to the plight of his people is wicked and damaging indeed.
“The
DHQ wishes to reassure Nigerians that as a patriot and one on whose
shoulders the leadership of Nigerian Armed Forces rests, he has honestly
reaffirmed severally that he considers every Nigerian and every part of
Nigeria as deserving of equal protection especially at this challenging
times.
“Just like any other Nigerian, the CDS is pained at the
mindless carnage and bloody violence perpetrated against innocent
Nigerians by the terrorist group.
“Contrary to the falsehood
bandied around by a number of professional critics and detractors, the
CDS believes that every town or village under attack deserves protection
whether it is his home town or not.
“This false story on Air
Chief Marshal Alex Badeh is one of the many fabrications being
circulated as information or articles by individuals who have remained
desperate in the efforts to dampen the spirit and morale of military
personnel in particular and Nigerians in general as we strive to stop
the activities of terrorists on rampage against our people.
“It is
therefore necessary to appeal to the populace of concerned citizens to
join hands with the security forces in this effort by refraining from
the series of distractive criticisms and comments.
“The mass media
is again requested to beware of lifting stories on the military from
online media that has become the main channel of disseminating falsehood
on happenings in the system.”
Source:PM News
No comments:
Post a Comment