A fake account attributed to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Valerio Sibanda has published the below statement purportedly by him .

ZimEye warns our viewers and listeners that the said so called statement is not at all from the general and the account owner may be just a poet.

Good day to our beloved citizens!

I would like to encourage all citizens to remain peaceful and campaign freely without intimidation from any political party. While operation restore legacy had it’s shortcomings, it was a neccessary operation. Moving forward, i demand that the government respects it’s citizens and allow them to enjoy the full freedoms derived from our liberation struggle.

I will not preside over a military that does not uphold the constitution. We will remain as professional as we can under the difficult conditions we are operating under.
We would like to thwart all allegations doing the rounds in different social media platforms to the effect that the JOC had a meeting intending to declare a state of emergency and postpone 2023 elections. Those allegations are false baseless and only imaginary in the minds of people the authors of the story.There are no such bases for us to declare a state of emergency.

I want to take this opportunity to denounce with the strongest terms all the violence that is taking place during this campaign period.
May we be reminded that we all Zimbabweans first before we are identified by our varied political affiliation.
As i conclude, be reminded that if you are used in acts of violence for which ever political party you stand for, just know that your day of judgement will come and the long arm of the law will catch up with you. It might not be today, but justice will be served. Be warned!

I wish all citizens of this beautiful country a healthy and peaceful campaigning period.

The General.