The Nigeria army has dismissed as false the report by global watchdog, Transparency International, alleging that some officers in the military are profiting from the Boko Haram crisis in the North-East.
Defence Spokesman, John Enenche, while denying the allegations, said the report should be handled with suspicion.
According to him, the investigation carried out in Nigeria by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) on behalf of Transparency International bore no semblance of an objective research.
The Major-General told the media in Abuja on Saturday: "The allegations are false. I want to connect that to the saying that there is no smoke without fire.
"But I am afraid that for this particular situation, there may be smoke without fire.
"Why do I say so?
"I went through the bulk of the 19 page report; went through the executive summary; went through the release made in London by the Transparency International of what the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) did for them here in Nigeria and I discovered that there was a total disconnect.
"Of course one needs to draw a trend from their report and 'investigation' they did and called research which had no reflection of research about it. Premised on this, I will want to personally say that there smoke has no fire.
"As a military academician and civilian scholar, I want to say the reports are false.
"This (Transparency International) report should be handled with utmost suspicion. For a thing like this that is disconnected in the course of all there so called investigation.
"Transparency International is not in Nigeria.
They have representatives here, and I want to believe that they must have been funded to do a proper job and produce a good report that will be presented to the press or the public. Why was it not so?
"So, I will assume there is an action of a fifth columnist somewhere such that even Transparency International has to be careful about whoever they hire as representatives to do such jobs for them."
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