Defence Headquarters says there are no secret graveyards in the North East Theatre of Operation as being insinuated in some quarters.

According to its Director of Defence Information, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, such insinuation could only emanate from an uninformed position, saying the Armed Forces of Nigeria had a rich and solemn tradition for the interment of their fallen heroes.

“Therefore, it must be unambigously clarified that the Armed Forces of Nigeria does not indulge in secret burials, as it is sacrilegious and a profanity to extant ethos and traditions of the Nigerian military.

“In tandem with the traditions of the Armed Forces, fallen heroes are duly honoured and paid the last respect in befitting military funeral of international standard.

“It features funeral parade, grave site oration, solemn prayers for the repose of departed souls by Islamic and Christian clerics, as well as gun salutes, aside other military funeral rites,” he said.

Nwachukwu explained that the cemetery described in the publication, situated in Maimalari military Cantonmen, was an officially designated military cemetery for the Armed Forces in the North East theatre, with a Cenotaph erected in honour of the fallen heroes.

According to him, the official cemetery has played host to several national and international dignitaries, where wreaths are laid in honour of the fallen heroes.

“It is therefore a far cry from the sacrilegious impression being painted by the “Wall Street Journal”.

“The Defence Headquarters therefore urges members of the Armed Forces and the public to disregard such a misinformed publication.”

He urged them “to see it as a figment of the imagination of the writer, whose knowledge of military valued ethos and traditions is grossly misplace.”

A report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claims that the Nigerian Army has been burying hundreds of soldiers in secret unmarked graves, in a bid to cover up the casualty figures in the ongoing war against insurgency within the North East.

According to the report, at the northern edge of Maiduguri city’s sprawling military base, a vast field of churned soil conceals the hidden toll of a deadly offensive by the allies of Islamic State.

It further states that after dark, the bodies of soldiers are covertly transported from a mortuary that at times gets so crowded the corpses are delivered by truck.

The report says the bodies are laid by flashlight into trenches dug by infantrymen or local villagers paid a few dollars per shift.

WSJ says its report is based on accounts from Nigerian soldiers, diplomats, and a senior government official.

A soldier who spoke from the Maimalari barracks is quoted as saying, “Several of my comrades were buried in unmarked graves at night,” where more than 1,000 soldiers are based. “They are dying and being deleted from history.”

The secret graveyard at Maimalari isn’t the only one in Nigeria’s troubled northeast, said the senior government official quoted by WSJ.