The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has denied reports that the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, sent a helicopter to his home town, Mubi, in Adamawa State, to evacuate members of his family hours before it fell to Boko Haram terrorists.
In a statement issued on Monday, the military said that the report was reckless and urged media practitioners to desist from relying on social media and bloggers for their reports.
The statement read, “The attention of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has been drawn to an article with the caption, “The Helicopters that evacuated CDS Badeh’s family from Mubi: A lesson for All Nigerians” written by a certain Elvis Iyorngurum and posted in an on-line news outlet, NewsRescue.com on the 6th of November, 2014. The said article which contained strings of deliberate falsehood and spurious allegations claimed that few hours before the attack on Mubi by the terrorists, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal AS Badeh flew in helicopters and evacuated his family from the town and abandoned everyone else to their fate.”
The DHQ said that at no time did the Chief of Defense Staff send any helicopter to evacuate any of his family members before, during or after the attack on his home town.
It said contrary to the claims by the online newspaper, the helicopter that flew to Mubi was on an operational mission to reinforce the ground troops in preparation of efforts to repel the attack. The helicopter did not convey any civilian or relation of the CDS as insinuated in the article, it stated.
The statement further said, “This false story on Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh is one of the many fabrications being circulated as information or articles by individuals who have remained desperate in the efforts to dampen the spirit and morale of military personnel in particular and Nigerians in general as we strive to stop the activities of terrorists on rampage against our people.”
It appealed to Nigerians to join hands with the security forces in its anti-terrorism efforts and to refrain from distractive criticisms and comments.