*Sahara Reporters fabricated information about accident – Ladan
*Says Amir still at hospital but picking up
*May be flown to Abuja – Source
*How Sultan received news of son’s accident
*How such report was neutralised in the past
“But why do some journalists rubbish themselves thinking that they are rubbishing the image of people whom Allah has made great? Sometimes even if there is anything negative about our leaders, it behoves any reasonable media practitioner that wants Allah to think well towards him or her, here and in the hereafter, to fear Allah and do the normal thing. There is nothing normal in people looking out for negative things about other people particularly reputable leaders at all times. That is what I said to myself the moment I saw that Sahara Reporters’ story.”
By Bashir Adefaka
Sources in Sokoto, on Monday, reacted to a report by Sahara Reporters of the unfortunate accident involving Amir, eldest son of Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, saying the cause of accident was not exactly what the online media “usually known for its misrepresentation of facts against targets” reported.
Sahara Reporters had on Sunday reported the accident was due to over-speed caused by Amir’s being “high on codeine”, but both highly and lowly placed sources in the City of the Caliphate particularly those close to the Sultan’s Palace told The DEFENDER, during a fact-finding mission on Monday, that if anything would be said to have caused the accident, it was far from being under the influence of either drug or any drink.
“No, no, no. That is not true. In a bit to achieve its mission, Sahara Reporters did not even know the name of the Sultan of Sokoto because what it reported was ‘eldest son of Usman Sa’ad Abubakar Sultan of Sokoto’ and our Sultan is not Usman.
“You know that Airport road that it is actually not a place any vehicle crawls like snails. However, the only thing I think could have happened was his attempt to pick a call until the car approached the roundabout and crashed. This however has not been heard directly from him since he still needs to be allowed to rest.
“What I can say on this is that, if there is anybody who has gone out to write evil out of the misfortune that has happened to fellow human being, you should just leave whoever has done that to his Lord and Allah is good in treating everybody based on his deeds. As for us, we are pained this happened to Amir but we are looking up to Allah for his mercy because, the impact of the accident on him is much. It is unfortunate and painful,” one of the sources, who said he was in the hospital with Amir while The DEFENDER’s call entered, said.
Although other occupants mainly members of the Royal family were also injured but not to the degree suffered by Amir, who broke in the legs, it was gathered.
Secretary to the Sultanate Council (SSC), Alhaji Faruq Ladan, when called upon by The DEFENDER with a view to unravelling the situation surrounding the accident and state of health of the royal son, confirmed that the accident actually happened but denied the angle introduced to the story by Sahara Reporters.
He said, since Amir is son of a big man that is known all over the world, conscienceless media practitioner or information manager would want to twist whatever happened about him just to create unnecessary noise over the accident.
“Amir, son of Sultan had accident yesterday (Sunday) and he is still at the hospital as I speak to you, but he is picking up,” he confirmed.
Asked about items Sahara Reporters reportedly said were found on him and in the car, the Sultanate Council spokesman said, “They are all telling lies. They did not see the car. The car was removed immediately and so where did they search the car and find whatever they said they found in it? They are just fabricating information and nothing else.”
He added, “Honestly, you know when things happen, and you know Sultan is a big man, they tend to make noise. That is how you should take whatever they reported. But normally I can tell you that Amir, for now, is still in the hospital.”
On whether there was plan to take him to Abuja or fly him out of the country for further treatments, Alhaji Faruk Ladan said, “For now I don’t know.”
Another source, who spoke under condition of anonymity, however told The DEFENDER that it was possible for Amir to be taken out of Sokoto any moment from the time of speaking with The DEFENDER either to Abuja or out of the country.
He said, “That is about our brother who has had accident and anybody can be involved in accident. We have situation where a whole Honourable Minister of the Federal Republic, wife and son had accident on Abuja-Kaduna road and died. What did journalists not report? They said the driver was the one who killed them. Now it is Amir, because he drove himself, he must have been on something, according to them.
“Don’t forget what they made of Yusuf Buhari when he had motorbike accident in Abuja. Did we not have son of a former minister of the country who is now governor of a Northern state that was also involved in accident along Airport road in Abuja and died instantly? Did you not read or hear what they make of him?
“I think if we want Allah to change our situation from bad to good in this country, our media organisations and practitioners need to call themselves together and work against the evil-minded among them. Just try my suggestion; the solution to Nigeria’s problem resides in the media community. When the media mean well for Nigeria and Nigerian people, Nigeria will be better. So, my brother, don’t let what Sahara Reporters did about Amir bother you,” he said.
He however expressed displeasure at why people complain about evil minded media in Nigeria and, yet, such practitioners would not want to change, asking if people who write to celebrate the misfortunate of other people actually have conscience.
“But why do some journalists rubbish themselves thinking that they are rubbishing the image of people whom Allah has made great? Sometimes even if there is anything negative about our leaders, it behoves any reasonable media practitioner that wants Allah to think well towards him or her, here and in the hereafter, to fear Allah and do the normal thing. There is nothing normal in people looking out for negative things about other people particularly reputable leaders at all times. That is what I said to myself the moment I saw that Sahara Reporters’ story.
“If you go along major roads in parts of the country, you see how accident happened but something must be the cause of any accident and this has not happened to this family in very long time. Not even while his father, a retired General, was in service, or thereafter as king. Whatever sad that happens the way of any Muslim, he takes it as act of Allah, especially after he is sure that he has taken every caution within his limited capacity. So, that is the truth,” he said.
In the meantime, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, who was in Zaria at a programme where he had to deliver a lecture when the news of the son’s accident was broken to him, has taken the situation calmly although it could be painful to a father, The DEFENDER gathered.
A source told us that it was his time to deliver his paper at the Zaria event when the news was broken to the Sultan, “I salute his leadership quality. It pained him I, myself, knew because father-to-son relationship is thick. But, believe me, as a General he would not show his pain in the public and that was what happened so much that he still mounted the podium and delivered his lecture, calmly and still proceeded to accomplish the mission in Abuja for which he left home in Sokoto before the incident occurred,” a source in Abuja told The DEFENDER.
How Sahara Reporters’ such report was neutralised in the past
The DEFENDER can confidently report that this is not the first time Sahara Reporters is publishing negative news against the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar only to be found out later that there is no iota of truth in it.
On September 10, 2017 Vanguard Newspaper published what became a rebuttal of an earlier report by Sahara Reporters linking Sultan with an ongoing investigation at the EFCC over an Abuja guest house it claimed he took Sokoto money to buy for himself.
The DEFENDER had earlier published same story gathered during the then Eid-ul-Adha celebration of 1438AH (August 2017).
According to the Vanguard report titled, “N650M Abuja Guest House: My story, by Sultan Abubakar 111”, the Sultan spoke on the Abuja Guest House extract of which is presented here as reported:
“Be it for reason of being a retired general or just because of his royalty, Sultan Abubakar III doesn’t talk anyhow. Although when he eventually talks, no one will be left in doubt of the need to talk. Alhaji “Saadu,” as colleagues fondly called him in his days in the Army, is such a humorous, enigmatic and pragmatic personality. It was in the same spirit that this reporter had the opportunity of getting him to tell his own side of the story about the issue of the Abuja Guest House linked to him.
“I think there is somebody somewhere who just wanted to spite me and the governor of Sokoto State; otherwise, I see no reason for the report that Sokoto State government bought a house in Abuja for the Sultan who already owned a house there. It (report) is highly despicable. I wonder what kind of journalism some of our journalists practice these days. Journalists just jump into issues they do not know how they (stories) began and where they will end, and write reports and their publishers publish same. That is also part of the problem with the social media”, the Sultan started the story.
He put Sahara Reporters to shame by stating the truth of what actually happened at that time, “What actually happened was that the Sokoto State government decided to get a house in Abuja for the Sultanate Council and not for Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III; the house is to be used by anybody who becomes the Sultan of Sokoto. That is the truth of the story. And they sat down at their State Executive Council meeting, discussed and got it approved. It was legally done therefore. All the transactions concerning the Abuja house they wanted to buy were done by government. When they consulted me and said they would get the house and furnishing for over a billion naira, I told them no, ‘why should they buy a house of over a billion?’ I said that when they hand over the house to the Sultanate Council, I will move all the furniture that I use in the house that I live in currently, which is on lease, into the official residence.
“And because of that input from me, which implied that there was no need for government to furnish the house, the cost reduced from over N1 billion to about N650 million. That should be appreciated by anybody who is public spirited. But because payment was made from government account to somebody’s account, who is one of the sons of the soil doing his own business as a private person and has his right to do business, and he has been doing contracts for government and is not a government official, somebody in the EFCC flashed it and he was right to have done that. But when they saw the whole thing, they discovered that there was nothing wrong with the transaction. But somebody in the EFCC still had to give that as a story to an online newspaper and see what they wrote about me, saying I have a house in Abuja and I still collected money from government to buy a house in the same Abuja. So funny.”
