Group fingers opposition, disgruntled elements behind falsehood to demoralise military on war against Boko Haram

The Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism (CATE) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate at the last polls, Atiku Abubakar, of leading other disgruntled politicians to sponsor falsehood just to demoralise the Nigerian military.

CATE made this known in a press conference on Monday in Abuja in reaction to a piece published by a national daily.

In a statement signed by National Coordinator, Gabriel Onoja, the group revealed that the story was meant to cast impression that the gallant troops have become inferior to remnants of Boko Haram/ Islamic State (ISWAP).

According to the CATE, the opposition has resumed its devilish alliance with international NGOs and some third party nations, taking up previous plot of portraying an entirely turbulent situation in the NorthEast.

Unlike painted in the article, the group reckoned that the Nigerian military remains better equipped than the terrorists, evident in its series of sensational onslaught.

While cautioning the daily to desist from publishing such falsehood and unfounded reports, CATE threatened not to hesitate to comprehensively expose the network that is being used to implement this anti-peace agenda.

However, the group urged the military not to be distracted by this kind of ploy as Atiku and his cronies are hell-bent on unleashing terror for their selfish interest.

Read full press statement below:

Gentlemen of the press, the Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism (CATE) has noted with concern news report by national daily titled, “We need better arms to fight Boko Haram –Military commanders.” The news report did a hatched job of creating the impression that government troops have become inferior to Boko Haram and Islamic State (ISWAP) terrorists that they are fighting in the north-east of Nigeria.

The report cooked up a narrative of troops being confined to Shilka guns, T-72 Tanks and Soviet era relics as equipment for fighting the terrorists. It went on to create the impression that troops are constantly on the run whenever they have to confront the terrorists. Permit us to point out that the true intention of that report was hidden towards the closing of the piece where it attempted to disparage the Super Camps that were recently created on the heels of the realization that concentrated efforts are needed to take on Boko Haram terrorists.

It does not take rocket science to figure out the flaw in the story. The scenario concocted in the story could not have produced the heave body counts of Boko Haram dead that have been recorded in recent weeks. If the troops are able to annihilate such number of terrorists with supposedly outdated weapons then Nigeria is fortunate because it means the terrorists will be wiped out with even more modern equipment.

A report as profound as that had the chance to speak with so called field commanders, had all the time in the world to analyse ten years of defence spending but could not make genuine efforts to hear from any military spokesperson. What Nigerians were offered were lame excuses on why the hit job was concluded without hearing the side of the people that were maligned in the course of performing their duties.

The foregoing leaves no option than to conclude that the report in question is another in a long series of lies and falsehood to demoralise troops. This has been an aspiration of the terrorists, some elements of the political opposition, international NGOs and some third party nations that all have the interest of seeing Nigeria fail.

While it true that the sponsors of such malicious reports have been airdropping weapons and supplies to terrorists, especially beyond Nigeria’s borders, the Nigerian military remains better equipped than the terrorists and have continue to do damage to Boko Haram and ISWAP.

The dating of equipment, as attempted in that report, gave away the fact that its sponsors are unfamiliar with the fact that the age of a hardware is not necessarily a setback when they are well maintained.

Judging from the tone of the report and its fixation on playing with figures, it has all the hallmarks of the scam artists running propaganda for the defeated candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku. These fraudsters fabricating the lies that they expected Nigerians to accept without question.

The essence of this travesty is to continue the sense of insecurity they had attempted to overwhelm the country with before the election, which they have now resumed after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal dismissed Atiku’s petition.

We must also say that with the benefit of hindsight and taking the Atiku’s failed Dubai pre-election strategy meeting into consideration, any new weapons, including technology that Boko Haram has acquired apparently can be traced to the money the opposition leader deployed for that purpose. It ties into the threat from this same man that killings will continue if he is not made the president of Nigeria. Now that his killers are unable to unleash terror on Nigeria as predicted, his cronies are trying to use media reports to sow terror in the land.

CATE warns that this media aggression against the people and the Nigerian state is unacceptable and has no place in the scheme of things that the country is doing to develop and position itself in the emerging world order. We shall not hesitate to comprehensively expose the network that is being used to implement this anti-peace agenda. Our exposing them would help Nigerians to know those that do not wish them well.

We urge the military not to be distracted by this kind of ploy, which the Atiku camp unleashed as its retribution against the military for not agreeing to overthrow a legitimately elected government to suit his desperation to get into power. They should also be ready for further escalation of such misleading report because Atiku’s supporters are yet to get over the fact that the military protected the election in line with what was expected of them.