Analysts has wondered why the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has assumed the position of purveyor of fake news following his statement revealing that Fulani herdsmen killed 66 persons in the state.
ElombahNews had earlier reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kaduna branch, rejected the story being peddled by Governor El-Rufai about the Fulani herdsmen killings.
PDP Kaduna has expressed “great shock” over the press release of Governor El-Rufai’s spokesman.
The statement revealed that ” killings in Kajuru Local Government was committed” leading to the death of 66 persons.
PDP stated categorically that “the said claim is completely false, but an incident that happened in the early morning of Tuesday, 12th February, 2019, at about 1 a.m, at Gindin Gada, Maro Ward of Kajuru Local Government, in Kaduna State”.
Reacting to the PDP statement, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission [NHRC], Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, taking to his Twitter handle, lampooned El-Rufai for peddling fake news without recourse to security sources.
He said it is not responsible for him to make public claims about mass killing of people of an ethnic group in any place in Nigeria with only his private publicist looking over his shoulder without any security agency, whether polide or SSS, to confirm.
See tweet:
It's not v responsible at this time for a Governor to make public claims about #MassKilling of ppl of 1 ethnic group in any place in #Nigeria with only his private publicist looking over his shoulder & without any security agency – not @policeNG & not SSS – to confirm.#Kajuru66
— Chidi Odinkalu, CGoF (@ChidiOdinkalu) February 16, 2019
Another analyst with ElombahNews said:
“Not surprised about this. I have been on the phone all evening to Kajuru with non-party people and can’t find one person to substantiate the claim by Gov El-Rufai about the killings.
“I hate to say this but actually, watching Gov El-Rufai now on the Channels 10pm news leads me to an almost certain conclusion that this Kajuru thing is fictional or in any case manufactured deliberately for electoral disruption.
“He throws in the words “Fulani” and “reprisal” very deliberately as a dog whistle.
“Most responsible leaders in his position would be careful about this kind of “information” at this time and would hesitate to be as dispositive and definite as he has chosen to be on this occasion without the benefit of security sector investigation.
“Most would use that to hedge about what they say. But not El-Rufai.
“On any other occasion my sense is that Gov El-Rufai would not be this garrulous about reports of the killing of so many people”.
Recall that EL-Rufai was on national TV recently and threatened to send foreign observers back in “body bags” if they interfere in Nigeria’s general elections.