The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, has warned the nation of the presence of ‘fifth columnists’ in the military, saying such persons caused the conflicting information coming out in recent times. The Air Chief Marshal spoke in Abuja at the start of a three-day workshop on ‘Security/Media Relations in Crisis Management.

Defense Chief told: “If your people are misleading you, what do you do? There are too many fifth columnists.

 “There was a report which says oh, we have seen some of the Chibok girls, only eight are missing, it was a very senior officer that gave that information from Chibok area.”

 “We are dealing with that situation. That was when people started saying watch what Maj.-Gen. Olukolade, the Director, of Defence Information says. He was misled by one of us,” Badeh continued.

He advised journalists to be guided by the national interest while reporting of the current counter-insurgency operations in the North-eastern part of Nigeria.

Air Chief Marshal added that even though they may know many things about army forced operations, they should not report issues that would hurt or create panic.

He asked the journalists to prove their report before publication.

Also speaking at the event, the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, advised the media to be hard-working while reporting about the operations. He said that the country was facing important security challenges.

The Office of National Security Adviser organized the retreat in conjunction with Trim Communications.