The Nigerian Army has denied rumours making the rounds that some of its personnel are going round schools in Rivers State dressed in military camouflage uniforms with the intention of forcefully vaccinating students with an unknown substance.
A statement signed by Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col Aminu Iliyasu on Tuesday said: “The callous and unpatriotic rumours spread by these enemies of State are, to say the least, despicable, deplorable and highly condemnable by all well-meaning Nigerians as they are intended to cause pandemonium among the general public.”
There was pandemonium in Port Harcourt and other parts of Rivers on Tuesday as students fled their schools over fear of being injected with a killer virus.
Parents also rushed to their children’s schools to withdraw them.
Iliyasu statement, however, said: “while the Nigerian Army plans to undertake such gestures like free medical outreaches, sanitation exercises in host communities and distribution of educational materials as part of our community relations activities during the ongoing Operation CROCODILE SMILE II, these activities are yet to be conducted and will eventually be conducted with the consent of relevant authorities of designated communities and at venues and dates that will be duly communicated to the general public through future press releases and relevant posters.
“For the purpose of emphasis, the Nigerian Army does not and will never carry out its medical outreaches or vaccination exercises for that matter in Schools. We can therefore categorically inform the public that the ongoing rumours about Nigerian Army Personnel going round schools in military camouflage to forcefully immunize school children are not true and should, therefore, be discountenanced with.”
