…IPOB started claim of Christian genocide in Nigeria in 2016 –Bwala
By Augustine Akhilomen
The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has debunked reports circulating in the media that the President will meet with US Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday after Nigeria was designated as a ‘Country of Particular Concern.’
Temitope Ajayi, in a post on his X handle on Monday, has denied the report, describing it as “fake news.”
He clarified that if President Tinubu were to visit the White House, it would not be to meet with a Vice President.
He wrote, “There’s a Sahara Reporters story that President Tinubu is going to the U.S. on Tuesday to see U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. That story is not true.
“I can see that the fake news by Sahara has become the basis for some uninformed commentaries since yesterday. If President Tinubu is going to the White House, he won’t be going to see a Vice President.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Monday disclosed that the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, started the alleged “hoax” of Christian genocide in Nigeria in 2016.
President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, Daniel Bwala, disclosed this during an interview on TVC’s Your View.
This comes as President Donald Trump of the United States, US, has designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over reports of genocide against Christians.
However, Bwala said: “Since that IPOB started this thing as far back as 2016, amplifying the false narrative that there is a genocide against the Christians in Nigeria.
“Those that are killed are more of the Islamic faith than of the Christian faith. And government will be irresponsible if all we sit down, we’ll be talking about how many are killed Christians, how many are killed Muslims.
“That’s why we’ve maintained consistently the position that it is criminal elements, and we are joining and forcing a common force so we can find them; we don’t profile the killing.
“Now, those who profile the killing actually are the people who have an agenda against the Nigerian state. And this whole hoax of Christian genocide started from IPOB.
“There was an investigative report that was conducted last week. I think Arise News mirrored that in their Stories Trending, which says that IPOB started this thing as far back as 2016, amplifying the false narrative that there is a genocide against the Christians in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, that fake news, that falsehood, made it to the ears of senators in the United States, like Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Randy Moore, and the rest of them. This is the kind of quagmire that we have found ourselves in.
“But dialogue helps in deepening the conversation and identifying the problem. First, we and the American government have a lot of things that we have shared interests in.
“So this is how you start a diplomacy conversation, find areas where you both agree, and then you realize that the areas you disagree are not as much as the areas you agree, and you’ll find a solution to it.”