The Nigerian Army has described the action of soldier in viral video as “a deliberate attempt to shield himself from being accused of cowardice, having abandoned his colleagues during an ongoing clearance operation in Gurara, Niger State.”
It would be recalled that yesterday, a video surfaced on various social media platforms in which a soldier claimed that he had been abandoned by his colleagues during an operation on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
Watch Video below;
In response to this video, the Army have come out to say that preliminary investigations revealed that the soldier’s assertions and impressions in the video clip were a deliberate attempt to insulate himself from being accused of cowardice for abandoning his colleagues during an ongoing clearance operation in Gurara, Niger State.
The Nigerian Army, in a statement by Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director Army Public Relation, revealed that it is true that soldiers recently carried out a clearance operation in Niger State’s Gurara Local Government Area.
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But during the operation, the said soldier in viral video abandoned his colleagues and fled in an outright display of cowardice and suspected sabotage, which contradicts the military profession’s tenets.
Nwachukwu in the statement said, after realising the gravity of his actions and the potential consequences, the soldier secretly released the footage to the internet in an attempt to incite public outrage and cover up his cowardice.
According to him the soldier’s action betrays the esprit de corps and comradery that are synonymous with a military unit and fighting formation, especially during operations.
For this reason, the soldier’s actions are out of character and go against the military’s principles and core beliefs, he said.
He noted that the video footage is a complete distortion of what actually happened between the soldier and his colleagues.
The soldier in viral video has since returned to his unit, and further inquiries into the circumstances surrounding his unprofessional behavior are presently underway.
Read Original Statement HERE.
