Chocolate City founder, Audu Maikori, has apologized to the
College of Education in Gidan-Waya, Kaduna and the Kaduna
State Government, for sending out false information about an
attack on the school.
Maikori at the time claimed that six students of the school
were killed by Fulani herdsmen, including his driver’s younger
brother.
The College of Education released a statement denying the
incident and Maikori faced a lot of backlash on social media,
with many saying he posted fake pictures.
However, he has now published a retraction on his Facebook
page and claims his driver, a certain Simon Joseph, misled
him.
His statement in full:
“Following the statement by the College of Education, Gidan-
Waya Kaduna and the Kaduna State government refuting the
story that 5 students of the school were killed by Fulani
herdsmen en-route to school on the 27th of January 2017, as
reporter by my one Simon Joseph (my personal driver) I
decided to further investigate the story to ensure that all the
facts of the case and evidence were presented to the
authorities.
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.”
