Defence Headquarters on Thursday clarified Nigeria’s 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) sixth ranking among most terrorized nations, saying that the report from the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) “gives a more accurate situation about counter-terrorism efforts in the country than that from outsiders.”
Director of Defence Media Operations (DDMO), Major General Markus Kangye, told journalists while answering questions on the 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) released on March 5, 2025 that using the family as illustration, “the information released by the Head of the family, which is the Defence Headquarters, is usually more correct than that of an outsider.
“Something is happening in my house. I’m the head of the house. I have children, I have a wife, and kuma shi (someone else) is reporting what is happening in my house to me. Which one would be more correct? The one that I will tell you as the head of the house, or the one that kuma shi is reporting from outside? The one I think that will give you the correct information is that of the head of the house.
“So you, as a member of the media, that attends this meeting every week, you should be able to stand and correct what they are giving Nigerians.”
Speaking further, Kangye said he wasn’t going against the report but urged the media to give the correct version of happenings in the country.
“I’m not countering what they put out there, but as observers, I think you should be the better person that will give the correct version of what is happening in Nigeria,” he said.
On the sit-at-home order in the South East, Kangye said residents, out of fear, still stay indoors on Mondays, but stated that the military is working to free the region from Indigenous People of Biafra/Eastern Security Network (IPOB/ESN) fighters.
According to General Kangye: “Who gave the order? IPOB/ESN criminals. And because of what is happening in the South East, Operation Udo Ka was set up just like Hadin Kai in the North East.
“And I want to tell you that for the past three leaderships of the Commanders we have in the South East, they have been doing very well. And if they give them a sit-at-home order, they will tell them more about your normal business, but the locals in some areas, for fear of being attacked, fear of being killed, they will stay at home. The Commanders under that operation are doing their best. They are doing so well to ensure that the South East is free from IPOB/ESN.”
