Fani-Kayode: Sokoto Airstrike not Based on Intelligence from Onitsha trader

Former Minister of Aviation and ambassadorial designate, Femi Fani-Kayode, has dismissed the report that the US relied on intelligence from a trader based in Onitsha, Anambra State, to launch its attack on ISIS terrorists in Nigeria.

President Donald Trump had announced a Christmas Day attack on ISIS targets in Sokoto, North West, Nigeria.

The Nigerian government had later said the attacks were carried out in collaboration with Nigerian Armed Forces which got approval from President Bola Tinubu.

But at the weekend, the New York Times reported that Trump and US Congressmen relied on data from Emeka Umeagbalasi, founder of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, otherwise called Intersociety, to push the narrative that Christians were being singled out for slaughter in Nigeria.

Umeagbalasi was quoted as saying he has documented 125,000 Christian deaths in Nigeria since 2009, based on research from Google searches, Nigerian media reports, secondary sources, and advocacy groups like Open Doors, a Christian organisation whose data Trump has cited.

He told the New York Times that he rarely verifies his data. He also acknowledged that he seldom travels to the regions where attacks have occurred and usually assumes the victims’ religion based on the location of the attack.

But Fani-Kayode described the report as an attempt to undermine both Nigerian and U.S. governments and their intelligence capabilities.

“Anyone that honestly believes that the U.S. Government based its intelligence to bomb parts of Sokoto state on the intel supplied by an Onitsha-based screwdriver-seller who used Google map to source his information and not on the intel supplied by the Nigerian intelligence services must have a low self-esteem.”

“The false and mischievous narrative which has been purposely put out by the New York Times to belittle, demean, embarrass and debase both the Nigerian and the U.S. Governments and their intelligence-gathering capabilities is puerile. No country will allow its country to be bombed in the name of fighting ISIS or anyone else on the words of an Onitsha utensils trader and neither would the Americans take such a precipitous and consequential course of action on the words of such an individual. Things just dont work that way.

The Nigerian Foreign Minister has made it clear that the Americans took the action in collaboration with our Armed Forces and Intelligence agencies and that the intel they used to do so was given to them by our Government.

“I spoke with him exactly ten minutes after the bombing took place and he not only assured me of this but also provided me with details of the build-up to the event.”

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