THE Nigerian Army has frowned at the circulation of images and videos of soldiers killed by terrorists in Wednesday’s ambush at Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The terrorists reportedly killed about 30 soldiers, seven mobile policemen and six civilians in the attack.
Several people sustained injuries while many others were abducted during the incident.
One of the soldiers, who was captured in a video that had gone viral on the social media, said he was going to sacrifice his life for Nigeria. The soldier, identified as Husseini Muhammad, from Jigawa State, asked Nigerians to pray for troops in the bush fighting to keep the areas safe.
However, in a statement released on Saturday, Army spokesperson Onyema Nwachukwu urged Nigerians to show some restraint in circulating such images and videos online.
He noted that families who lost their loved ones deserve to be properly notified of the incident and should not be made to get the information through the social media.
“Some clips of the incident have surfaced online and we wish to encourage well meaning Nigerians to exercise some restraint in posting images of such occurrence, mindful that our brothers and sisters who may have lost their breadwinners deserve to be properly notified and not to get such information via the media. We mention this, mindful of the inalienable rights of citizens to use the social media which is respected,” he said.
Nwachukwu explained that the soldiers paid the supreme price while on their way to respond to a distress call concerning an attack on a mining site in the area when they ran into an ambush staged by the criminal elements.
“The troops of the Nigerian Army deployed in Shiroro general area responded to a distress call of bandits attack on people operating a mining site. Enroute the location, the troops ran into an ambush staged by the criminal elements. Sadly, a number of personnel paid the supreme price in fierce firefight that ensued,” he said.
The Army spokesman further disclosed that the location had been reinforced, adding that troops were on the trail of the criminals.
“The GOC 1 Division has moved to the location to take charge of the follow up operations,” he said.
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