Sultan Denies Report Of Alleged Attempt On Life By Recently Killed Terrorist In Sokoto

The Sultanate Council has denied the news report of a purported plot to assassinate the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III following an Army-SSS joint operation in the Gidan Dare area of Sokoto State, which was targeted at a suspected terrorists’ hideout.

In a statement issued in Abuja  by the Magajin Garin Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Danbaba, through the Sultanate  Council’s Media Consultant,  Abdulhamid Babatunde, the Sultanate Council described as deliberately and alarmingly misleading, a report by a national daily with the screaming headline; “ Plot to Kill Sultan Foiled”.
The statement accused the newspaper of not cross-checking its facts before going to press, saying that it was unethical for any news media to publish falsehood.
The statement said it was imperative to denounce the newspaper’s report so as to correct the wrong impression it might have created in the minds of Nigerians.
“The Sultanate Council denounces the newspaper’s contrived attempt to link the security operation that took place on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in the Gidan Dare area of Sokoto Township with His Eminence, the Sultan, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III,” the statement said.
It accused the newspaper of twisting the facts to serve its sinister agenda of sensational reporting.
“Contrary to the professional requirements of news reporting, the accompanying news item contained no attribution or credible basis to justify the screaming headline and did not reflect any attempt to verify such a disturbing report either from the military authorities who conducted the operation or from the Sultanate Council.
“The unethical slant to an event that was adequately publicised by the authorities concerned as an operation triggered by a tip-off on the existence of a terrorist hide-out in the Gidan Dare area of Sokoto that was successfully executed indicates the paper’s scant regard for factual reporting of events while giving undeserved attention to the speculative and ill-intentioned imagination of its reporter.
“The Sultanate Council seizes this opportunity to urge media practitioners to be responsible and to observe the ethics and standards of the noble profession of journalism in carrying out their duties,” the statement said.