BBC and AFP journalists, Anna Cunningham and Phil Hazelwood have called out Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina for allegedly ‘lying’ that the military does not disclose figure of casualties in an attack.
We reported that Femi Adesina who was a guest on Channels TV last night, addressed the controversy surrounding the Metele Boko Haram attack which left over 100 Nigerian soldiers dead. Femi Adesina who is President Buhari’s senior special assistant on media and publicity stated that all over the world, the military does not or rarely disclose the figure of casualties.
However reacting to this BBC and AFP journalists who disclosed that have been invited to countries like US, Canada, Australia and others for press briefing about military casualties, also shared links of such disclosure.
Anna Cunningham wrote;
Really
@FemAdesina@channelstv ? Here is the list British military fatalities list available from the government https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-deaths-in-service-2017… & here is the US list https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf… & the French http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/article.php?larub=9&titre=conflits-et-operations…I have reported on the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The media were invited to cover the funeral services.Those deaths were made known by the MOD with permission from next of kin.
Phil Hazelwood who is AFP’s bureau chief in Nigeria, Benin, Togo & Ghana, also shared links. He wrote;
Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/recent-fallen-canadians.html… Australia https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/war_casualties…UN peacekeeping operations