BREAKING: 2023 election: Nigerian military responds to ‘Atiku meeting, coup plot’

The allegations that some of its personnel had conversations with a presidential candidate regarding the 2023 election have been dismissed by the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, allegedly met with senior military officials, according to former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode.

Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, Acting Director of Defence Information, responded on Saturday evening, denying that the military was involved in a plot to sabotage the general elections.

The spokesperson said the “wicked and very malicious propaganda indicated that a so-called Thursday meeting plotted a Coup d’etat to establish unconstitutional order”.

The Armed Forces expressed dismantled that “politically exposed persons can denigrate themselves into joining agents of destabilisation and violence in making false claims just to heighten tension in the polity”.

The director stated that the military that is loyal to the constitution of the Federal Republic and will never be part of any evil plot against democracy.

The Defence Headquarters maintains it remains apolitical and neutral in the current political process and will not engage in shenanigans.

“Those who engage in fabricating and spreading unfounded misinformation will be invited by the appropriate law enforcement agencies to substantiate their claims.

“The Armed Forces of Nigeria will never be part of any ignoble plot to truncate our hard-earned democracy,” the statement added.