Badeh: Officers misled Olukolade on Chibok girls

Military spokesman, Major-Gen. Chris Olukolade, was misled by officers who gave him wrong information on the whereabouts of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, the chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, has said.

Twice, Olukolade has given wrong information on the girls, first telling the media days after their abductions in April that all but eight of them had returned and been reunited with their parents.

He also told the media recently that some of the girls had been rescued and were at the military baracks in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Both stories turned out to be inaccurate.

Badeh, at the beginning of a three-day retreat on security and media relations in crisis management on Wednesday, alleged that there are fifth columnists in the military.

“If your people are misleading you, what do you do? There was a report that we have seen some of the girls and only eight are missing. It was a very senior officer that gave that information from Chibok area,” he said.

“And I think that is when people started saying watch what Chris Olukolade is saying, but he was misled by one of us. There are too many fifth columnists.”

He pleaded with Nigerians to help the military with accurate information so that the country can be more effective in the anti-terror war.

Badeh insinuated that western countries were not ready to help Nigeria despite the fact that Boko Haram “is more vicious” that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is currently being bombed by the US and its Arab allies.

“If you look at what is happening in Nigeria, Boko Haram is not different with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In fact, our own people are more vicious, but everybody has gone to Syria to go and bomb. Who has come to your aid? You have just been left alone to do it,” he said.

Badeh also accused sections of the Nigerian media of celebrating Boko Haram.

“Some newspapers celebrate when anything bad happens to this country. They really celebrate it, maybe because of politics. President Jonathan cannot be doing everything. When an institution has small problem, you do not go and say the president has failed,” he said.