On Thursday, the Nigerian Army refuted claims that Turji Bello, the leader of a band of bandits, had taken one of its armoured personnel carriers hostage.
The army was responding to a social media video that went viral and showed the bandit leader capturing an APC that was allegedly owned by the Nigerian Army.
Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, the director of army public relations, claimed in a statement on Thursday that the video was fake.
The statement included the following passage: “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a widely shared, unfounded, and seemingly fabricated video clip circulating on social media, portraying stage-managed capture of a Nigerian Army armoured personnel carrier by Turji Bello, one of the notorious terrorists’ leaders in North West Nigeria.
The Army wants to make it clear that there was no event involving the capture of any of its APCs within the theatre of operations in the North-West, as maliciously and unjustly depicted in the video.
According to him, the service’s review of the video revealed that it had been manipulated.
“Analysis of the video clip demonstrates that the footage was doctored, as NA vehicles, including APCs, have NA engraved on the number plates, which is noticeably absent on the allegedly captured APC in the footage.
Furthermore, according to our records, the entire incident depicted in the video was not anything that happened at any time on Nigerian soil; rather, the information available indicates that it took place in Burkina Faso at some point in 2021. The statement said, “Further research revealed that the same video was posted on Facebook on November 9, 2021, with the URL https://web.facebook.com/watch/?v=1544154362616622.
He urged the public to ignore the video and added that the Army takes great care to protect its assets.
“Furthermore, the NA maintains a high level of vigilance and professionalism in securing its own armoured vehicles by making sure that they are not compromised by any criminal element,” Onyema stated.
“The NA consequently cautions the populace to be careful of misinformation and propaganda deployed by the rebels, which are intended to sow fear and destabilise our country’s peace and security.
