Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (retd), said media report about Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai’s ownership of property in Dubai was calculated to distract the military from its war against insurgency.

The minister’s reaction is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by his Principal General Staff Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Ahmed.

He said that the report was not only malicious, but targeted at derailing the military’s effort to end the reign of terror in the North-East and urged Nigerians to disregard it in its entirety.

The minister said that the present administration would not harbour persons with dubious character and as such, urged the media to exhibit a higher sense of professionalism in discharging their duties.

According to him, there has been a series of concerted but futile efforts in the past by the same medium and its cohorts to tarnish the image of the Chief of Army Staff, Buratai.

He said that previous attempts to distract and ridicule the personality of the army chief did not yield result, hence the resort to the property ownership saga.

Dan-Ali said that it was needless to overstate the matter as Buratai had declared the assets twice as the Commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force and as the Army Chief.

``The Ministry of Defence views this as an attempt by some unpatriotic and disgruntled elements to distract the leadership of the Armed of Forces of Nigeria from the successes of the war against terror.

``It is on record that Lt.-Gen. Buratai has declared his assets as Commander of the Multi National Joint Task Force and as the Chief of Army Staff to the Code of Conduct Bureau.

``These facts are verifiable with the Code of Conduct Bureau,’’ he stated.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that an online medium recently published a report about the Chief of Army Staff’s ownership of a property in Dubai.