Nigeria: False newsflash on president’s resignation

The local and international broadcast media quickly picked up the story and broadcast it to the whole world. In the euphoria, however, little did it cross the mind why the President would resign after “cabinet reshuffle”. Would his new appointments be binding on his successor?

Swiftly, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) disowned the story, while presidential spokesman, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, emphatically denied the rumour, saying it was the handiwork of those who do not wish Nigeria well.

But Channels TV, which initially broadcast the news, was last night shut down by the State Security Service (SSS) over the hoax.

This is the third significant rumour about Yar’Adua since last year – the first being that he had died in Germany during the presidential campaign. Last month, he was rumoured to have died having gone into “coma” after undergoing a “renal transplant”.

Yesterday, the rumour sent officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) panicking as the Minister of Information and Communication, Chief John Odey, and officials of the SSS swooped on the headquarters of NAN. Odey is the supervisory minister for the news agency.

Denying that the report originated from it, NAN said in a statement: “The management of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today in Abuja disowned a news report being circulated to a section of the mass media, purporting it to have emanated from the agency. The story, which was sent via e-mail from an address: newsagencynig@yahoo.com, in Abidjan, stated that ‘President Umaru Yar’Adua may resign after a carbinete reshuffle, on health ground’.

“Managing Director of the agency, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, declared in a statement that the agency had nothing to do with the story. The [e-mail] address is not that of NAN. The poor grammar, as indicated in the wrong spelling of “cabinet” could not have been that of NAN.”

She said that some mischief makers, bent on using the NAN platform, must be at work. “The agency vehemently disowns the story in its entirety and will not have anything to do with speculative or unfounded reports,” she stressed.

According to the NAN source, “the moment the news item was aired on Channels TV, the Minister of Information and Communication, John Odey, arrived our office in company of some SSS officials for inquiry. But at PDP headquarters, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Ahmed Rufai Alkali, rushed to the office of the National Secretary, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, to brief him on the “newsflash” from Channels Television. THISDAY gathered that the moment Baraje was briefed, he dashed out of the Wadata Plaza and rushed to the Presidential Villa, as the National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, was not in town.

Meanwhile, the SSS yesterday explained why it shut down the Lagos and Abuja offices of Channels Television, saying it carried “a certain false news story that is against the well-being of Nigerians”. Earlier, some armed operatives of the security agency had invaded the premises of NAN and the Abuja office of the Channels. The operatives, who invaded the two media establishments in gestapo manner, allegedly seized all the security men at both premises and beat up those who insisted they must identify themselves.

The Nigerian Guild of Editors said it received the news of the shut down of Channels TV with shock. “Every allegation should be properly investigated through the due process,” it said.

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API/Source.This Day (Nigeria), by Ike Abonyi, Chuks Okocha and Juliana Taiwo - September 17, 2008.