Former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika
has responded to the allegations made by Australian Negotiator that he
is one of the sponsors of Boko Haram
Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika during the meeting of the Alumni Association of members of Regular Course 18 of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), at the National Defence College (NDC), Abuja described the allegations against him as frivolous and unfounded.
Ihejirika who warned against giving undue attention to the Australian’s claims said the allegation was meant to divert the attention of the country and its security agencies thereby causing division.
The ex-Army boss who warned Nigerians against utterances that could bring down the morale of Nigerian troops, a situation he described as dangerous.
He also warned stakeholders and allies that the terrorists are currently exploiting the country’s ethno-religious, socio-political and multi-cultural faultiness to advance their cause, which they have not been able to achieve through violence.
Iherjirika said: “If this accusation
was made in a country like US or UK, it would not be discussed for one
hour because they would wave it aside. But they are exploiting our
traditional fault lines, a multi-religious multi ethnic, multi-cultural
and young democracy, so what they have tried to do is aimed at achieving
what they could not achieve.
“I have chosen to do this because we
cannot allow national security to be toyed with; the need for security
awareness in spite of the effort I put in at time and the effort being
put by the current leadership of the Armed Forces, the need for security
awareness still persists.
“I want to urge all Nigerians to join
hands to support Mr. President and members of the Armed Forces in their
onerous task to rid this country of terrorism.
“I want to further advise that
baseless, unfounded and frivolous allegations like this have the
capacity of diverting our attention, away from the main problem.
“Nigeria must exist before you can
hold a single political office and there is no compromise in the effort
to have a peaceful and united Nigeria. Therefore, I have no apologies at
all whatsoever to those who thought I was high handed.
“I used to explain to them that the
Nigerian Army is not high handed, but every Army makes a lot of efforts
to ensure that its troops operate within the rule of engagement”.
“That we are where we are today is a
lesson to us. The lesson is that the terrorists are not sleeping; what
they cannot achieve through bombing, they want to achieve through media
warfare.
“War is no longer fought in the
traditional three dimension of air, land and sea; we have clearly seen
the fourth dimension of warfare”, he stated.
Ihejirika who pointed that his leadership recruited 9000 soldiers in
2013 in monitoring the borders effectively and beef up the strength of
the military said that he remained unshaken by the attention given to
the allegation because of his belief that “we are yet to come to terms
with the motives of the terrorists and their desire to bring this nation
down”.On August 31, Australian Negotiator, Stephen Daviss had insisted that former governor of Borno State, Modu Sheriff and former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika are Boko Haram sponsors.
Meanwhile, Modu Sheriff has since reacted to the Negotiator’s accusation and threatened to sue him saying: “I have no association with any terrorists anywhere. “I have never met the group. I cannot be a sponsor of a group I have not met before.”
Following the the Australian Negotiator, Stephen Davis’ allegations, the Federal Government, yesterday, denied hiring Dr Stephen Davis as a Boko Haram negotiator.
The FG said they have no plans of prosecuting General Ihejirika and Ali Modu Sheriff based on the allegations made by Australian negotiator Stephen Davis.
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