The Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu has come out to defend his statement where he said that the 43 slain farmers did not get military clearance before farming in the area.

This is coming after Nigerians blasted him for saying such during his interview with BBC.

According to him, he is human with tons of compassion and empathy, and he never meant that the victims deserved their fate for ignoring security clearance.

He added that he only answered the question from BBC honestly, and he did not intend to trend on social media for the wrong reasons.

His words, “I’m human with tons of compassion and empathy, and could not have said that the victims deserved their fate for ignoring security clearance.

“The question I tried to answer on BBC was: did the security sign off on the area as being free of mines and terrorists? The honest answer is, no.

“Today, I found myself leading the trends in the social media for the wrong reasons.

“I was merely explaining the mode of military operations in the war zone of the Northeast. There are areas that are still volatile that require security clearance which is intended to put people out of harm’s way.

“When tragedies occur, questions arise in terms of how something happened in order to avoid future recurrence. Informing the military of our movements in an area of volatility and uncertainty is intended to preserve public safety.

“Explaining why something happened doesn’t mean I have no sympathy for the victims. I was just explaining the military procedures on the safe movement of the people and not supporting the death of the victims.”