Chocolate City president, Audu Maikori, has released a statement retracting a story he shared online some weeks ago where he said that 5 students of the Kaduna state College of Education were killed in the Southern Kaduna crisis.
According to Maikori, after carrying out a detailed investigation that involved the police, he found out that his driver who claimed his brother was also killed, lied to him just to extort money.
Read the statement below...
My
driver Simon Joseph had travelled to the village to attend his younger
brother’s burial and on his return on Monday the 30th of January 2017, I
asked him for pictures from the burial, the ID card of his brother and
also pictures of the casket so I could submit to the authorities and he
told me that he had phone issues so he could not store pictures on his
phone. He told me however that his sister had the pictures on her phone
and I proceeded to give him money to go to Ikeja to get the pictures
from his sister, so I could have evidence. He didn’t return till
evening, and when he did, he showed me some blurry picture of a male
body which didn't show the face of the victim. At this point I began to
strongly suspect foul play. I again questioned him about the veracity of
his story to which he swore on the bible that his brother was dead and
even began to shed tears.
Not totally satisfied with the story I made contact with his referees ( who helped to engage him) and they didn't seem to know about any death in his family . So on the 2nd of February, 2017 I went in company of his referee one Mr Dauda to the Lekki Police Station for questioning in the absence of his providing any concrete evidence of the death of his brother and fellow students(He clearly didn't suspect anything at this stage). When we got to the station, I lodged my complaint and when he was questioned he maintained his story about the deaths were real until the police officers at the station threatened to arrest him . It was only then that he confessed and said he was just trying to collect money from me; that he knew that I was involved in the advocacy on the Southern Kaduna crisis and he thought that I after obtaining money for me for the fake burial expenses I wouldn't cross check the veracity of his story. So he was duly arrested.
Following
this development, I decided that the right thing to do was to issue a
statement retracting the tweet which reported the killings of students
of the College of Education as relayed to me by my driver. And I had no
reason to doubt him due to the spate of killings in the area and because
in the 8 months he has worked for me, he had never "lied" to me about
anything or so I thought. Besides why would any right thinking human lie
about the death of a sibling?
Consequently,
I hereby tender an unreserved and sincere apology to the Management of
the College of Education, Gidan Waya, His Excellency the Governor of
Kaduna State and the Kaduna State Government, and also to the people of
Southern Kaduna and the Fulani community and also VANGUARD newspapers
whos source was my driver for the false statement by my driver which I
also publicized believing same to be true.
This
action is made even more imperative because I understand that as a
leader in my community, my statements are taken seriously and shapes the
narrative. But nothing is more important in leadership than owning up
to mistakes honestly and with integrity regardless of the repercussions
or circumstances.
I
make this statement with all sense of responsibility, realizing that by
admitting what transpired, people may begin to doubt my credibility and
that of my statements in future… this is a risk I am willing to take
but I would rather tell the truth about the situation than suppress it.
Besides
this what is clear to me is that there are people who are simply just
creating and concocting pictures and stories to deliberately mislead
people , like I was misled. With benefit of hindsight I should have
checked the story in detail but given that I am not a journalist or
Police officer my experience in these matters are/were limited.
I must also seize this opportunity to plead with my brothers in Kaduna, regardless of ethnic or religious persuasion that the time to unite and fight for peace is now. This unfortunate situation is now actively being used by crisis opportunists, politicians and some unpatriotic elements to forge their personal or commercial agendas to the detriment of the peace and stability of the state. This must stop.
Instructively,
it is important to note that nothing in my clarification undermines the
fact that the lives of Nigerians citizens have been lost in the
Southern Kaduna crisis rather it refers to this particular incident
which I have verified to have been untrue and fraudulent.
The
arrest of the arrest of 17 suspects with arms and ammunition in
connection with the Southern Kaduna killings on the 3rd of February by
security agents is evidence that our agitations are yielding fruit and
to that end I commend the government on these arrests as well as many
more in the nearest future.
To
this end, I am even more resolved in this quest for the restoration of
peace in Southern Kaduna and also working even more closely with the all
the stakeholders to ensure that normalcy returns to Kaduna. What is
however clear is that unverified facts , hate messages and ethnic
stereotyping only exacerbates the issues ,they don't help the pursuit of
peace.
As
I speak, my former driver Simon has been handed over to the police
authorities.He is available to help the authorities with any further
investigations.
Finally all the people that posted #IstandWithAudu I appreciate the trust bestowed on me and hope I haven't lost it.
No comments:
Post a Comment