Farooq Kperogi Speaks After Fake News On Dasuki’s Death

Kperogi Breaks Silence After Dasuki’s Release

Twitter users have come down hard on Farooq Kperogi, an associate professor of journalism in the US and a known critic of the Buhari administration after it was discovered that the news he shared on the death of Col. Sambo Dasuki is false.

Kperogi had in the past shared a news item in which he stated that Sambo Dasuki, a former national security adviser (NSA), died in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

But following the release of Dasuki from custody on Tuesday, some Twitter users have come down hard on the professor.

The media attack has elicited a reaction from Kperogi where he disclosed that he was misled by a viral WhatsApp audio. He also shared the audio.

“Now that Dasuki is out of jail and we all know for a fact that he is alive, I feel an obligation to share the viral WhatsApp audio that had falsely claimed that Dasuki had died in jail,” he had tweeted on Wednesday.

“It was a recorded phone chat between two people in Hausa, which I received from more than 10 people on the eve of the presidential election. I’d just woken when I heard the audio and was terribly distraught.

“I Googled it and found that a few fringe websites had stories on it, so I shared the news thinking, as the person who shared the false news in the phone call claimed, the government was really trying to hide the news from the mainstream media because of the upcoming election.

“It turned out that it was entirely false. Dasuki’s family friend and media adviser Yushau Shuaib confirmed that he had met with Dasuki the previous day.

“So I took down my update within minutes of putting it up and apologized. I just want to put it out there for the records. If you don’t understand Hausa, get someone who understands it to translate it for you.”

See what he shared:

The Viral Audio that Claimed Dasuki was Dead-THREAD

Now that Dasuki is out of jail and we all know for a fact that he is alive, I feel an obligation to share the viral WhatsApp audio that had falsely claimed that Dasuki had died in jail. It was a recorded phone chat between two pic.twitter.com/Xw2ZRmtCuL

— Farooq Kperogi (@farooqkperogi) December 25, 2019