The Nigerian Army says reports of soldiers involvement in a gun duel with miners where seven people including two soldiers were allegedly killed is not only false but an attempt at misinforming the general public.
Director of Army Public Relations Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu while reacting to an online publication by Daily Nigeria.com of 9th January 2022, alleging that 2 soldiers and 7 illegal miners were killed during a gun duel, arising from a disagreement over gold nuggets in Magama village in Jibia LGA of Katsina State, said the report is a misrepresentation of the fact.
The report had alleged that the incident occurred when the soldiers turned down an initially agreed offer of 500,000 naira per pit from the miners, but afterwards, turned around to demand more money on discovering the large quantum of gold nuggets found by the illegal miners in one of the pits.
“This story is baseless, unfounded, untrue and a mere figment of the writer’s imagination, aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the Nigerian Army, as no Nigerian soldier was killed, nor involved in any skirmish with illegal miners in Magama village on 5 January 2022.
“Contrary to the insinuations peddled by the online medium, Nigerian Army troops deployed in the North West are committed and engrossed in the fight against banditry and other criminalities bedevilling that region.
“They are not permitted to participate in any form of mining, whether legitimate or illegitimate.” He said.
He noted further that aside from orchestrating disrepute, fake news as this, have the potential to dampen the morale of the fighting troops, erodes their fighting will and undermine the entire operations.
“This is certainly not what the troops require at this critical time,” Nwachukwu added.
He, therefore, urged the general public to disregard the fake news as it is concocted to denigrate Nigerian Army troops, who are working tirelessly to ensure sanity and peace return to the Northwest region.
“We assure the general public of the unrelenting commitment of our troops to decisively tackle the banditry menace in the North West,” he concluded.