Our Soldiers Not Involved In Gold Nuggets In Katsina—-Nigerian Army

<p><em>Our Soldiers Not Involved<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>OpenLife Nigeria reports that the Nigerian Army has officially denied involvement in a reported fracas over gold nuggets in Katsina state&period; A statement signed by Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu&comma; Director&comma; Army Public Relations and made available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife<&sol;a> reads <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to an online publication by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">Daily Nigeria&period;com<&sol;a> of 9th January  2022&comma; alleging that 2 soldiers and 7 illegal miners were killed during a gun duel&comma; arising from a disagreement over gold nuggets in Magama village in Jibia LGA of Katsina State&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>According to the publication&comma; the incident occurred when the soldiers turned down an initially agreed offer of 500&comma;000 naira per pit from the miners&comma; but afterwards&comma; turned around to demand  more money on discovering the large quantum of gold nuggets found by the illegal miners in one of the pits&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> The  Nigerian Army wishes to unequivocally state that this story is baseless&comma; unfounded&comma; untrue and a mere figment of the writer&&num;8217&semi;s imagination&comma; aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the Nigerian Army&comma; as no Nigerian soldier was killed&comma; nor involved in any skirmish with illegal miners in Magama village on 5 January 2022&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> Contrary to the insinuations peddled by the online medium&comma; Nigerian Army troops deployed in the North West are committed and engrossed in the fight against banditry and other criminalities bedeviling that region&period; They are not permitted to participate in any form of mining&comma; whether legitimate or illegitimate&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> Aside orchestrating disrepute&comma; Fake News as this&comma; have the potential to dampen the morale of the fighting troops&comma; erode their fighting will and undermine the entire operations&period; This is certainly not what the troops require at this critical time&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> The general public are therefore urged to disregard the fake news as it is concocted to denigrate Nigerian Army troops&comma; who are working tirelessly to ensure sanity  and peace return to the North west region&period; We assure the general public of the unrelenting commitment of our troops to decisively tackle the banditry menace in the North West&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;