A Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Kaduna state has reacted to a video that has gone viral accusing Gen. Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defense Staff of being used by France, America and Britain in favour of a war between ECOWAS military force and the Nigerien military junta.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Kaduna, Nuhu Bahago, the Coordinator of the coalition, noted that the video is capable of inciting hatred against the CDS and called on Gen. Musa not to be distracted from his commitment to serve his country and humanity.
“As you maybe aware, there is a trending video of an Islamic cleric making the rounds in which he made very inciting and malicious allegations against the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, and also profiled his tribal group.
“Gen. Musa hosted a meeting of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff following the coup d’etat in Niger in which the need for the restoration of constitutional democracy in that country was extensively discussed.
“The outcome of that meeting seemed not to have gone down well with the cleric,” Bahago said.
He claimed that the religious leader had alleged that France, America and Britain are using Gen. Musa to wage war against Niger, a Muslim country.
“Apart from accusing Gen. Musa of unwillingness to terminate banditry in Nigeria, the cleric went on to hatch a vile conspiracy theory accusing him of being a stooge of the West.
“The Cleric further alleged that the meeting of the Defence Chiefs of ECOWAS which was hosted by Gen. Musa was to pursue an agenda of France, England and the US whose representatives he (the Cleric) alleged attended the meeting,” he said.
According to Bahago, the cleric alleged that the “leader of Nigeria’s military, Christopher Musa, said that they are ready for war if given the authority.
“In view of the unfortunate allegations, we as responsible, law-abiding Nigerians of fair minds who believe in truth and justice, must state our position on the issues raised in the video.
“We want to say that the tirade of the cleric is very offensive and clearly calculated to cause grievous harm on the CDS’s image and that of his Kataf people and instigate violence in the country.
“We condemn this act of hate and incitement and we call on relevant authorities to arrest and interrogate the cleric,” he said.
The group called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director General of the DSS not to allow the divisive and inciting video to go uninvestigated.
The Coalition expressed the hope that the full wrath of the law will be brought against the offending cleric, if found guilty to serve as a deterrent to others.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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