The Muslim Rights Concern, (MURIC), has dismissed a statement which has been circulating in the social media since yesterday as fake. MURIC is cautioning that the statement purportedly issued by the Fulani National Movement (FUNAM) and dated 25/6/18 is a false flag. It says the statement which was signed by Badu Salisu Ahmadu and Umar Amir Shehu made sweeping and alarming claims and threats against perceived enemies of the Fulani people.
“MURIC can confirm that the statement is fake. FUNAM president has just refuted the statement in a radio program in Abuja”, said the disclaimer signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC Director and which Intervention received on whatsapp message. MURIC is asking readers to disregard “this highly explosive statement”, asserting it to be the handiworks of those it calls enemies of the Nigerian State. “It is another proof that disgruntled politicians, looters under trial and their agents are fueling the killings in different parts of Nigeria”.
The statement in question has made its rounds yesterday but might have been ignored by most media houses because it bore obvious marks of an agent provocateur at work. Intervention declined to publish not because it was inflammatory but because it could be seen to have been written to provoke, not to take a position. Intervention, for example, does not decline publication of whatever was sent to it and from whichever sources. All it ever does is exercise professional responsibility to situate all materials it publishes, especially those that might be considered controversial by ordinary standard of reasoning peculiar to the national community.
