Intervention has checked to establish if any other media platform has published this story without success. But the source from whence it comes is as credible as it can be although how someone in the US seems to have got it before many others is still intriguing.
If it is true, then the story is that the young man in the cover picture hanged himself because Peter Obi was not declared winner of the February 25th, 2023 presidential poll.
There are no details regarding the name of the young man, the date and the place where this happened. Only the boy’s age was given. He is 19.
The stuff sent to Intervention is only accompanied by a three-paragraph script, part of which says, among others, that there is “no hope for Nigeria for the next 20 years after Obi lost the election, I rather end it now than to live in a hell called Nigeria”
The ‘reporter’ claimed the “small boy was part of the people that protested in the sun and rain to market Obi, but got disappointed by INEC that rigged the Election in the favor of Tinubu”
In all likelihood, this is simulated but publishing it is warranted because of the resort to spreading contextually fraudulent stuff in the social media, thereby lessening believability. People who do that are destroying themselves because nobody will take them seriously by the time they have a serious story to tell.
If it happened, it is classic tragedy on all counts but still very instructive. Number one, it is certain Peter Obi would not accept anyone killing himself for his sake. Number two, it amounts more to ignorance or lack of clarity more than anything else to kill one’s self for any cause because the cause dies a little the moment one is gone. Three, it would be a bad commentary on the part of the party he belonged in that the party has not properly conscientised the followers.
Still, it speaks to enemy images that persist in this country along religious lines, especially in states such as Kaduna, Plateau and recently, Benue.
Intervention will keep a tab on whether this happened.
