The Defence Headquarters has refuted claims that the French military was planning to establish a base in Nigeria.
A human rights activist, Mahdi Shehu, criticised the government on Saturday in a post for denying the development.
In a video-accompanied post, Shehu claimed that some French military officers had arrived in Borno State as part of the process to set up the base.
The post partly read, “Last week, the Chief of Defence Staff denied any plan to establish French military bases in Nigeria.
“Yesterday, the Chief of Army Staff received the first contingent of French soldiers and immediately deployed them to Maiduguri to ‘HELP NIGERIA IN FIGHTING BOKO HARAM.’ The same Boko Haram they claimed to have decimated and are scampering for safety.
“Before the blinking of an eye, a FRANCE military base will be physically seen in Maiduguri, perhaps before the new year, so that they will ‘FIGHT’ Boko Haram and begin to explore and prospect huge mineral resources and surely begin to exploit, harass, intimidate, kill, incapacitate, and annihilate the local people, which is typical of France’s presence in Africa.”