The
Army has said its current setting is a product of democratic settings.
It
denied planning to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
It
also described the recent report by a militant group, the Joint Niger Delta
Liberation Force, that some Army officers approached its members to join forces
to overthrow the Buhari administration, as another campaign of calumny and
distraction by a faceless criminal gang of economic saboteurs.
Army
spokesman Sani Usman said: “This is baseless and most unfortunate allegation
that existed in the warped minds of the originators of such weighty allegation.
The Army wishes to state that this is not true and hereby distances itself from
this weighty allegation.”
Usman
added: “We also see this speculation as a dangerous distraction to our effort
at fighting insurgency and other criminal elements in the country. The Army
would like to send a strong and an unequivocal warning to those speculating a
coup against the government to desist forthwith.
We would like state in clear
terms that we are a product of democracy and a focused professional institution
and would have nothing to do with such abomination and heinous crime.”
The
Army said it remained the greatest beneficiary of democracy and would not
contemplate any anti-democratic misadventure, especailly under current Chief of
Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai.
“Rather, we see this
type of dangerous speculation as a declaration of war to destabilise the
present government by these unscrupulous elements.”
The
spokesman said the Army would investigate those behind the rumour to know their
motive.
“We
would like to reiterate our unalloyed loyalty to the President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and
the defence of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Tags
Politics