The Nigerian Army has dissociated its personnel from the viral video in which some men in camouflage were seen destroying farm crops.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed in a statement on Facebook that the video footage was doctored by secessionists to bring the image of the Army tọ disrepute.
He said: “In an attempt to denigrate the reputation and image of the NA, authors of the video mischievously attributed the action of the persons to the military by falsely claiming they are soldiers and invariably personnel of the Nigerian Army.
“However, following a fact-finding investigation on the video by subjecting it to credible reverse image, it was discovered that the video was first published on YouTube channel ‘BIAFRA BOY,’ the Army spokesperson said.
In 2019, Africa Check, a media fact-checking organisation, spent a great deal of time fact-checking several of these false narratives from Biafra propaganda machinery.
It described their content as poorly written, almost never attributing their information to sources, and often contained mislabeled or manipulated photos and videos.
Onyema revealed that critical indicators from the video pointed that its authors were out to spread false propaganda that put the Army in a bad light.
“Similarly the authors failed to identify the location, community, or Local Government Area the incident occurred.
“Given these facts, it is apparent that the video footage is deliberate propaganda by ESN to bring the reputation and image of the NA to disrepute by portraying personnel of the Nigerian Army as enemies of the people,” he said.
He advised the public to disregard the video, assuring the Army’s commitment to protecting the sovereignty of Nigeria.
“We, therefore, urge the public to please discountenance the propaganda video as it is the machination of mischief-makers targeting the Nigerian military.
“We assure all peace-loving Nigerians of our commitment to aid civil authorities in the containment of security challenges in line with constitutional provisions,” he said.