An online news medium “ecocitynews” on August 2, 2020 published a story in which a Boko Haram insurgent, Abdulwahab Usman, was reported to have confessed to killing many Christians.
The headline of the story claiming that Usman, an ex-Boko Haram member, confessed to killing many Christians is misleading.
Full text
An online news medium Ecocity News on August 2, 2020 published a story wherein a Boko Haram member, Abdulwahab Usman, was reported to have confessed to killing many Christians. Another platform also published the story with the same headline.
In July, about 602 repentant Boko Haram members graduated from the Federal Government’s de-radicalization program, otherwise dubbed Operation Safe Corridor.
The Punch newspaper published a feature on one of the rehabilitated Boko Haram members, Abdulwahab Usman. who admitted that he had killed many people. He, however, did not specify the victim’s ethnicity or religion.
Reproducing the news, an online medium “ecocitynews” on August, 2, published a version of the story with the headline “I have killed many Christians to the extend, I can’t remember the lives I have wasted – Freed Boko Haram member said.”
The ecocitynews attributed the source of the story to Punch newspaper.
Being a religiously diverse country, unguided utterances and misinformation such as this has
in the past resulted in religious violence and claimed lives, hence the need for a verification.
Verification
Going through the report from Punch, it was noted that Usman indeed submitted that he had killed many people, however, he did not specify the religion of his victims.
“I was forced into the group for about five years. I can’t remember the number of people I killed as a Boko Haram member because they are many,” Usman was quoted as saying by Punch.
A closer look at the Ecocity News version shows that the headline of the story, which claimed that Usman had killed many Christians, did not align logically with the body of the story. So while the headline suggests the killing of Christains, Usman, never mentioned any of his victim’s religion all through the story.
From all indications, Ecocity News culled the story from Punch and gave it its own misleading headline.
Conclusion
While Abdulwahab Usman, a de-radicalised Boko Haram insurgent, admitted to killing many people, he did not say he killed Christians. The headline of the story by Ecocity News is misleading.
You are doing a great job doing content analyses of the print news media in the country, informing Nigerians on false and misleading news by some unpatriotic news media who are just very eager to make sales ignoring the consequences of their actions. Many of them may go to hell for deceit and falsehood, while a truly repentant Boko Haram, for example, smiles to heaven. My suggestion is that there should be a National News Media Ethics Committee to which your wonderful works could be submitted for disciplinary action. They also need to repent. Making money by deceit using fake/fabricated/mutilated/made-up/cooked news just to make money is evil against the nation. Such persons have twisted/crooked/complicated minds that should be corrected by God Almighty. Very importantly, a course on ‘Logic and Critical Thinking’ should be made compulsory for all staff of offending news media.