How presidency pronounced Gov. Danbaba Suntai dead, misleading Nigerians
The tweet Mr. Omokri hurriedly deleted…Click to read click clearly. |
A misleading tweet by an official of the
Nigerian Presidency helped fueled nationwide speculation Thursday that
Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba died in a plane crash.
Anxiety had mounted over the fate of the
occupants of the ill-fated plane after the story broke that six
passengers and crew, including Mr. Suntai, were aboard the small
jetliner which crashed Thursday evening close to the NNPC depot in
Yola.
But rather than help defuse the tension
over the crash, which came less than five months after a Lagos-bound
Dana-operated aircraft from Abuja crashed into a two-storey building in
Lagos, killing all 153 passengers, and 10 others on the ground, the
presidency added to the confusion, pronouncing the governor dead without
getting confirmation from officials on ground in Yola, the Adamawa
State capital.
“May the soul of the late departed
Governor, Danbaba Suntai, of Taraba State rest in peace and may God
grant the state peace this trying time,” the Special Assistant to the
President on New Media, Reno Omokri, said via his twitter handle,
@renoomokri.
But after this newspaper reported claims
by witnesses and Taraba State officials that the governor survived the
crash and was in hospital, Mr. Omokri hurriedly deleted his misleading
tweet. When we checked his twitter handle at 9.25 p.m., the tweet was no
longer there.
He did not offer any apology or explanation.
Mr. Omokri had in the past used his
handle to convey presidential statements and information to Nigerians,
and many were quick to believe the information he circulated.
“Once I saw Reno condoling Taraba and
the family of the governor, every doubt I had about the purported death
of the governor evaporated,” a state House correspondent told PREMIUM
TIMES this morning. “It is unfortunate that the presidency misled the
nation once again.
The Federal Ministry of Aviation later
issued a statement saying the Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai, and
the other five passengers aboard the crashed plane are alive.
This is the second time the presidency would mislead the nation in less than a month. In his Independence Day anniversary speech, President
Goodluck Jonathan had lied that global corruption watchdog,
Transparency International, had endorsed and praised his
administration’s war against corruption.
“In its latest report, Transparency
International (TI) noted that Nigeria is the second most improved
country in the effort to curb corruption,” the President said with glee.
But after this newspaper exposed the
lies contained in the president’s broadcast after doing a thorough fact
check and interviewing officials of TI, Mr. Omokri took to social media
deriding our medium and labeling it an opposition platform.
President Jonathan and his officials
are yet to apologise for the misinformation and the global
embarrassment many believe the false claim brought upon Nigeria.
No presidency official has also been punished over the matter.
The Special Adviser on Media to the
President, Reuben Abati, could not be reached to comment for this story.
Calls to his telephones were neither answered nor returned.
Source: PREMIUM
TIMES