Nigerian Army denies ‘deserted Sergeant’ claim it faked Dapchi abduction

The Nigerian Army has denied allegations by one ‘Sergeant David Bako’, who has accused it of faking or otherwise playing a major role in Boko Haram’s abduction of female students from Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State.

Social media reports have quoted David Bako, said to be a deserted soldier, of accusing the Army of complicity in the act.

Bako, according to the reports which have gone viral on social media, claimed to have deserted the Army and gave a vivid account of what he claims is the Army’s role in the abduction of the Dapchi school girls by Boko Haram.

Bako alleged a conspiracy that was planned at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with the release of the sum of N80 million to Army personnel who essentially executed a ‘false flag’ operation.

Reacting to the unsubstantiated allegation, Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, denied and dismissed the claims, urging the public to disregard the report.

Chukwu, who made this known in a statement, said the Army would dig deep into the matter and deal with those behind the conspiracy theory accordingly.

The Army spokesman, while noting that authorities have gone through its records and found no personnel bearing ‘David Bako’, maintained that it has always been neutral in its constitutionally recognized mandates.

Chukwu, in the statement made available to newsmen, said:

“The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a news report making rounds on Facebook and other social media to smear and drag the Nigerian Army into the politics of calumny by mischief makers, that one deserted Sergeant David Bako leaks how the Dapchi Girls abduction was planned in the Villa and executed with N80 million.

“The information was said to be provided by Sergeant David Bako who claimed to be a deserted soldier and one of the abductees of the Dapchi School Girls.

“The Nigerian Army, therefore, puts the record straight that it has crosschecked its records and cannot find any one called Sergeant David Bako, who neither serves in the Army, deserted or dismissed.

“The Nigerian Army, therefore, disassociates itself with such fictitious report and requests the public to disregard the confession made by the so-called Sergeant David Bako, who has not been in the Army at all.

“It is imperative to know that these baseless and inane allegations are not new in cyber space, knowing the fact that we are in the age of information warfare.

“Open Source Intelligence reveals that the website Dailyglobewatch.eu, with country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .eu used in publishing stories, is obviously fake and therefore not correct.

“Based on our findings, the website was registered on the 14 of April 2017 and last updated on the same date and will expire on the 14th April 2018; we are very familiar with reports of this nature and will advise the general public to disregard such claims and desist from sharing such information on new media as this is against the Nigerian Cybercrime Act 2015.

“However, it is really worrisome the level at which some people could condescend so low as to fabricate facetious allegation against the Nigerian Army and the military at large for cheap political gains or simply as an act of pure wickedness. Thus the public should disregard such facetious allegations.

“The Nigerian Army wishes to reiterate its commitment to remain apolitical and non-partisan in the discharge of its constitutional roles.

“We would also like to reaffirm our unconditional support and obedience to civil authority as well as reassuring Nigerians that these Fifth Columnists will not succeed in their mischief as they will be fished out and dealt with accordingly.”