Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, on Saturday demanded an apology from African military blog.com for unprofessional and unfair publication against him.
Nigerian Army Spokesperson, Brigadier general Mohammed Yerima, said in a statement titiled: Re: NORICO UNDER FIRE FOR SUPPLYING INFERIOR ARMOURED VEHICLES TO NIGERIA, that there was no time or event that General Attahiru “make any comment nor had any interview on the subject either with the author or anybody for that matter.”
The publication was authored by one Ekene Lionel and published in African military blog.com on the 19th of March, 2021.
Specifically, the statement noted: “Let it be known that the entirety of the said story is the figment of imagination of the author as the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, did not at any time or in any event make any comment nor had any interview on the subject either with the author or anybody for that matter.”
The Army therefore described the publication as “false, misleading and a deliberate fabrication ostensibly published to serve a yet to be determined motive. Whatever the motive is, we consider this publication as not only unprofessional but very unfair to the Chief of Amy staff.
“We therefore demand from the publishers of African military blog.com, immediate retraction of the concocted story as it runs against the grain of professional journalism to willfully and wrongfully attribute a story to an unsuspecting party.
“Even as the Nigerian Army under the leadership of Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru recognizes and appreciates the indispensability of partnership with the media in the quest for a secured, peaceful and progressive Nigeria, it is advisable that professionalism must guide the conduct of media practitioners.”