Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has dismissed a report by the New York Times suggesting that the United States airstrikes carried out in Sokoto State were based on an intelligence report of a civilian.
He argued that it is impossible for the United States to carry out such a mission based on the intelligence report of an individual.
Speaking via 𝕏, he asserted that such an action could only have been taken based on intelligence supplied through formal collaboration between US and Nigerian security agencies.
He described the newspaper’s account as misleading and damaging, accusing it of attempting to undermine the credibility of both the Nigerian and U.S. governments and their intelligence-gathering capabilities.
He wrote: “Anyone who honestly believes that the U.S. Government based its intelligence to bomb parts of Sokoto State on the intel supplied by an Onitsha-based screwdriver-seller who used Google map to source his information and not on the intel supplied by the Nigerian intelligence services must have a low IQ, low self-esteem and a low intelligence quotient. I respectfully urge such a person to get sense.
“The false and mischievous narrative which has been purposely put out by the New York Times to belittle, demean, embarrass and debase both the Nigerian and the U.S. Governments and their intelligence-gathering capabilities is puerile and childish. No country will allow its country to be bombed in the name of fighting ISIS or anyone else on the words of an Onitsha utensils trader, and neither would the Americans take such a precipitous and consequential course of action on the words of such an individual.”