Army denies capture of armoured vehicle by bandit kingpin

The claim that Turji Bello, the leader of a band of robbers, had taken one of the Nigerian Army’s armoured personnel carriers was refuted on Thursday.

The Nigerian Army’s APC was filmed in a viral video posted to social media, according to the army.

The video was fake, according to a statement released on Thursday by Brig. General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director of Army Public Relations.

The statement said, in part, “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a widely shared, unfounded, and seemingly fabricated video clip circulating on social media, portraying stage-managed capture of a Nigerian Army armoured personnel carrier by Turji Bello, one of the notorious terrorists’ leaders in North West Nigeria.

“The Army wishes to strongly emphasise that there was no such occurrence that entailed the capture of any of its APCs within the theatre of operations in the North-West, as mischievously and unjustly depicted in the video,”

He said that the service’s analysis of the video revealed that it had been altered.

“Analysis of the video clip demonstrates that the film was doctored, as NA vehicles, including APCs, have NA engraved on the number plates, which is noticeably absent on the allegedly captured APC in the video.

Additionally, according to our records, the entire incident depicted in the video did not occur at any time on Nigerian soil; rather, the information available indicates that it took place in Burkina Faso at some point in 2021. Further investigation revealed that the identical video was published on Facebook on November 9, 2021, with the URL https://web.facebook.com/watch?v=1544154362616622, the statement continued.

He urged the public to ignore the video and added that the Army protects its equipment with a great degree of expertise.

Onyema said, “Furthermore, the NA maintains a high level of vigilance and professionalism in defending its own armoured vehicles by making sure that they are not compromised by any criminal element, the statement continued.

“The NA consequently asks the public to be careful of misinformation and propaganda deployed by the rebels, which are intended to arouse fear and destabilise the peace and security of our country.