No Civilian Casualty In Emergency Areas, Says Defence HQ

The Defence Headquarters yesterday in Maiduguri dispelled media reports of civilian casualties in the ongoing military offensive against insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, made this known during a parley with newsmen while conducting a media tour of Borno for the journalists to have first-hand information on the military’s ongoing operations.

“To the best of my knowledge, no civilian has been killed, any one that was killed in a camp cannot call himself a civilian,” he said.

“The concern of the government from the beginning of this operation is to ensure that there is no civilian casualty.

“I therefore want to tell you that this has been substantially achieved.

“The next thing is to ensure that miscreants and trouble makers do not have access to civilian populated areas to cause other problems.”

According to the defence spokesman, most of the camps are populated by terrorists who are targets of the operation.