US Airstrikes in Sokoto Not Based mostly on Onitsha Screwdriver Vendor’s Intel — Fani-Kayode Reacts
The previous Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has described as false a report by The New York Occasions which claimed that United States airstrikes on components of Sokoto State had been carried out utilizing intelligence from a civilian supply somewhat than Nigerian authorities.
In a publish on X, Fani-Kayode stated it was inconceivable that the U.S. authorities would depend on data from a personal particular person utilizing on-line mapping instruments to execute a army strike.
He maintained that such an operation may solely have been carried out based mostly on intelligence shared by formal cooperation between U.S. and Nigerian safety companies.
Fani-Kayode additional accused the newspaper of publishing a deceptive and damaging account geared toward undermining the credibility of each the Nigerian and U.S. governments, in addition to their intelligence techniques.
He famous that Nigeria’s Minister of International Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had already clarified that the airstrikes had been carried out in collaboration with Nigeria’s Armed Forces and intelligence companies.
In response to him, he personally spoke with the minister shortly after the strike, throughout which Tuggar confirmed that the intelligence used was offered by the Nigerian authorities and defined the sequence of occasions that led to the operation.
Rejecting the report as inaccurate and unprofessional, Fani-Kayode insisted that no sovereign nation would enable army motion on its territory with out official intelligence coordination.
He wrote, “Anybody that truthfully believes that the U.S. Authorities based mostly its intelligence to bomb components of Sokoto State on the intel equipped by an Onitsha-based screwdriver-seller who used Google map to supply his data and never on the intel equipped by the Nigerian intelligence providers should have a low IQ, low shallowness and a low intelligence quotient. I respectfully urge such an individual to get sense.
“The false and mischievous narrative which has been purposely put out by the New York Occasions to belittle, demean, embarrass and debase each the Nigerian and the U.S. Governments and their intelligence-gathering capabilities is puerile and infantile.
“No nation will enable its nation to be bombed within the identify of preventing ISIS or anybody else on the phrases of an Onitsha utensils dealer and neither would the People take such a precipitous and consequential plan of action on the phrases of such a person.
“Issues simply don’t work that manner. The Nigerian International Minister @YusufTuggar has made it clear that the People took the motion in collaboration with our Armed Forces and Intelligence companies and that the intel they used to take action was given to them by our Authorities.
“I spoke with him precisely ten minutes after the bombing came about and he not solely assured me of this but in addition offered me with particulars of the build-up to the occasion.
“The New York Occasions story can finest be described as not solely faux information but in addition nothing however a hefty load of disingenuous and childish hogwash and the paper is finest flushed down the bathroom. Thanks on your consideration to this matter,” he concluded.