DHQ: Disregard Alleged Spread of Monkeypox by Military Medical Outreach

The Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday urged Nigerians to disregard allegations about the spread of Monkeypox through military medical outreach, describing such rumours as mischievous.

Director of Defence Information, Major General John Enenche explained that the medical exercise in the South East was merely a normal medical operation that had been replicated in other parts of the country.

He said, “The Armed Forces of Nigeria has been in the global best military practice of impacting on the lives of Nigerians through medical outreaches.

“In this regard, quick impact medical outreaches are usually conducted during deliberate operations such as the war against insurgency and ter- rorism in the North East and routine training exercise like Egwu Eke II in the South East among others.

“Particularly, the Nigerian Army on several occasions as afore-stated carried out medical outreaches in virtually all the geo-political zones of Nigeria without any observation in the past.”

Enenche explained that “the same goes for the Nigerian Navy that does same during all its exercises in southern parts of the country. Similarly, Nigerian Air Force is equally in the limelight of medical outreaches including victims of natural disasters all over the country.

“Categorically, the practice of reaching out to the general public medically is akin to the key task of securing the lives and property of Nigerians. Therefore, it has and can never be done with ulterior motive.”