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• We haven’t hired mercenaries, says DHQ

• Says report ‘covert campaign of blackmail’

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The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has debunked reports that the Nigerian military has hired the services of mercenaries, to help crush Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East. 

According to the report, which appeared first on a Turkish news agency, the Nigerian military was said to have engaged about 250 mercenaries from the South African-based Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP), with a view to meeting the December timeline set by President Muhammadu Buhari, to defeat Boko Haram.
 It quoted a source to have said:
“The mercenaries have been reengaged and their platforms are being deployed.” But the DHQ in a statement by the Acting Director, Defence Information (DDI), Col. Rabe Abubakar, said there was no truth in the report. 
While describing the report as “utterly scurrilous and a calculated attempt to smear the good image of the Nigerian military”, the DHQ insisted that the military and other relevant security agencies, retain the capacity to end the insurgency, and within the time frame too. The statement accused “blackmailers” of being responsible for the story, saying they were unhappy with the gains recorded in the counter-insurgency war.