Northern Integrity Group has regretted the sustained sensational reportage of the war against insurgency and banditry in the Northern part of the country by a certain section of the media.
The convener of the group, Mallam Idris Goga revealed this in a statement made available to newsmen Thursday in Abuja.
Mallam Goga expressed worry that these negative reports appear more to dampen the morale of the gallant soldiers and stir emotions of Nigerians against the determination of Nigerian Army to crush insurgency.
According to the group, such negative reports carry scary headlines and news of devastating attacks on villages when ever the insurgents attack communities in the North East maintaining that the intention was to rubbish what so ever success the military have achieved in the war.
The group further explained that it was clear that since the Chief of Army staff, Lt. Gen. Buratai relocated to the North East for the final clearance of the hideouts of the insurgents two months ago, the military has recorded tremendous success in the war through very coordinated ground and air attacks on the hideouts of the insurgents.
He regreted that the successes were however, not received the publicity and commendation from this section of the media.
The statement partly reads thus:
“Our independent sources have confirmed what the military under the command of Gen. Buratai, has recorded ground breaking success in the war by neutralizing many insurgents, arrest of both local and international informants, cut off food and logistics supply to the insurgents.
“Through surveillance and credible intelligence, the military has identified and stopped some NGOs suspected to be working for the insurgents in the North East, repelled several attacks and confiscated weapons from the bandits.
“We are puzzled that these successes have received very low reportage from this section of the main stream media. Rather, reports of insurgents attack when ever it happen gets serious coverage.
“We call on this section of the media to exhibit patriotism and desist from encouraging these attacks and dampening the morale of the Nigerian people with such wild and emotional headlines or news.
“We read with elation the success recorded as presented to president Muhammadu Buhari by the chief of army staff Lt. Gen. Buratai who has been in the battle field himself for over two months. He has confessed to the high morale of the soldiers in the battle field leading to the neutralization of over 1429 BokoHaram/ ISWAP terrorists. Over 116 terrorists informant have been arrested and bases totally destroyed and captured. This he stated was made possible through the credible intelligence gathering of the intelligence Corp, the DSS and the Joint civilian task force.
“This is no doubt no mean feat in the war against insurgency. We call on this section of the main stream media to propagate this monumental success in the war against terrorism and other criminal elements. There is so much to publish as victory than megaphone the cowardice of the terrorists.
“What ever gorilla attack, the insurgents take to any community is just the last kick of a dying horse”, the group added.
