Shehu Defends Statement On Borno Massacre

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media, and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, has taken to social media to defend his statement over the 43 slain farmers.

Shehu, while speaking with BBC on Monday, said that the 43 victims did not get military clearance before farming in the area at which they were attacked.

Following his statement, Shehu began to trend online; his statement went viral with many Nigerians condemning and criticizing him.

Seeing the comments that followed his statement, Shehu deemed it fit to explain his statement, noting that he is human and has sympathy for the victims.

He wrote, “I’m human with tons of compassion and empathy, and could not have said that the victims deserved their fate for ignoring security clearance.

“The question I tried to answer on BBC was: did the security sign off on the area as being free of mines and terrorists? The honest answer is, no.

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“Today, I found myself leading the trends in the social media for the wrong reasons.

“I was merely explaining the mode of military operations in the war zone of the Northeast. There are areas that are still volatile that require security clearance which is intended to put people out of harm’s way.

“When tragedies occur, questions arise in terms of how something happened in order to avoid future recurrence. Informing the military of our movements in an area of volatility and uncertainty is intended to preserve public safety.

“Explaining why something happened doesn’t mean I have no sympathy for the victims. I was just explaining the military procedures on the safe movement of the people and not supporting the death of the victims.”