The Federal Government has maintained that Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province insurgents are on the verge of total defeat by the Nigerian military.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this while responding to questions from journalists in Abuja over a report by The Economist alleging that the insurgents are collecting levies in many parts of the north.
He said, “Again, at a time that Boko Haram and ISWAP are taking on each other in a mutually-destructive lockstep, and at a time that the terrorists are surrendering in droves as a result of heavy pounding by the military, it is wrong to say that Jihadists are carving out a Caliphate in the North-East, as The Economist reported.
The minister wondered why the Nigerian media take such reports by foreign tabloids serious.
“In any case, why would the Nigerian media become an echo chamber for a foreign newspaper that denigrates the Nigerian military and makes light of the sacrifices of our valiant troops? Would the British or American press regurgitate a report in the Nigerian press denigrating their militaries?” he asked.
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