KEY POINTS

• DHQ says viral posts selectively distorted CDS Oluyede’s remarks on Operation Safe Corridor.
• Operation Safe Corridor is a deradicalisation programme, not an amnesty for active terrorists.
• The military reaffirms its commitment to neutralising terrorists while protecting law-abiding citizens.

Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters has pushed back against viral social media claims that the Armed Forces are soft on terrorism, saying posts circulating online deliberately stripped the Chief of Defence Staff’s remarks of their context to create a false and damaging impression.

In a statement titled “Re: Misrepresentation of the Chief of Defence Staff’s Remarks in Operation Safe Corridor,” Director of Defence Information Major General Samaila Uba said the narrative misrepresents what General Olufemi Oluyede actually said. According to the DHQ, a viral post selectively amplified portions of Oluyede’s comments from a professional military doctrine lecture while ignoring the full framing, consequently creating the impression that the military sympathises with terrorists.

What Operation Safe Corridor actually is

The DHQ Operation Safe Corridor clarification addresses a central point of confusion in the online discourse. The programme is not an amnesty scheme, the military said, but a structured deradicalisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration initiative targeting only former combatants who voluntarily surrendered, met strict profiling criteria, and were assessed as low-risk.

Furthermore, the DHQ noted that hundreds of individuals have already passed through the process and that their participation has contributed directly to intelligence gathering and the weakening of insurgent networks.

“His remarks highlighted how rehabilitation efforts complement battlefield successes rather than replace them. Any attempt to frame these comments as sympathy for terrorists is a gross misinterpretation,” the statement read.

Military doctrine, not soft policy

The DHQ also provided the context behind Oluyede’s original remarks, explaining that they came during a lecture on military doctrine and emphasised the importance of combining kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to conflict resolution in line with global best practices. In other words, the argument is about strategy, not sentiment. Nevertheless, the DHQ was direct in reaffirming that the military remains fully committed to neutralising active terrorists while protecting law-abiding citizens across all active theatres of operation.

The DHQ Operation Safe Corridor statement also underscored the broader function of deradicalisation in modern counterinsurgency, noting that such programmes reduce recruitment pipelines and interrupt cycles of violence that purely military responses cannot fully address on their own. The military urged Nigerians to rely on verified official sources rather than social media amplification of partial information.