The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has denied allegations of genocide made against it by a Kaduna based cleric, describing as not only diversionary but unfortunate.

The clergyman, Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, Wednesday night posted on his Facebook page four shocking photographs purporting to show how Nigerian soldiers executed unarmed civilians and buried them in a mass grave in Borno state.

Gumi described the act as genocide that must be investigated and called on the international community to institute an inquiry into the matter and bring to those culpable to book.

But spokesman for the DHQ, Chris Olukolade, said while the military will continue to respect freedom of expression of Nigerians, it will not submit to desperate blackmail and propaganda aimed at diverting attention and pitching public opinion against the armed forces.

“Although the real motive of the report and presentation with the apparent intention to impute military complicity in the event depicted in the pictures is yet to unfold, the DHQ sees this allegation as the manifestation of yet another grand design to tarnish and denigrate the image of Nigerian Armed Forces,” Olukolade said.

He added that the Nigerian military remains a professional force whose operations is guided by high standard of professional ethics and will not be party to suc