The Defence Headquarters on Sunday described the Armed Forces’ medical outreach as part of the Forces’ constitutional responsibility of securing lives and property of Nigerians.
Major General John Enenche, the Director Defence Information, said in a statement issued in Maiduguri, Borno State that there were no sinister motive behind the Armed Forces medical outreach exercise.
Enenche dismissed as misrepresentation and smear campaign against the military the rumor that it was injecting people with Monkey Pox injection to keep the disease spreading in parts of the country.
He said the Armed Forces had been conducting medical outreaches during operations and routine training exercises such as the war against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and Egwu Eke II in the South East.
Enenche said: “Categorically, the practice of reaching out to the general public medically is akin to the key task of securing the lives and property of Nigerians; therefore, it can never be done with ulterior motives.
“Thus, Nigerians should be assured that the Armed Forces will continue to carry out its all-encompassing constitutional responsibility of ‘National Security,’ health security inclusive.
“In this regard, quick impact medical outreaches were usually conducted during deliberate operations such as the war against insurgency and terrorism in the North-East and routine training exercise such as Egwu Eke II in the South-East.”
Enenche added that the Nigerian Armed Forces had been in the global best military practice and had impacted positively on the lives of Nigerians through the medical outreaches.
He noted that the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force had carried out various medical outreaches, including to victims of natural disasters, in the six geopolitical zones in the country in the past.
The director stressed that the exercises were conducted without any negative observation or insinuations.
Enenche said: “In specific terms, the campaign of calumny against the Nigerian Army regarding the outbreak of Monkey Pox disease should be disregarded.
“It is the machination of the usual mischievous and disgruntled elements in the business of blackmailing the Military for their myopic selfish interests.”
The director assured members of the public of the Defence Headquarters’ commitment to genuine and sincere medical outreaches by the Armed Forces in view of their positive impact on the people.
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