Tangale Community Overseas TCO) has called on Voice of Nigeria (VON) to investigate an audio report of an interview on Billiri violence by one of its reporters.
An audio report has been making rounds, in which a VON Hausa reporter, Musa Aminu, was interviewing one ‘Ben’, who claimed to have been sponsored by politicians to perpetrate the violence and attacks on properties and places of worship, following events related to the selection of Mai Tangle in Billiri.
[Find the audio in question here]
“We encourage them [VON] to investigate the matter and save its name from the children of Inuwa Yahaya, who knows no shame. Propagating lies on such a medium could lead to national upheaval,” General Secretary of TCO, Lamela Umaru Lakorok said in the statement.
The TCO said, since the Billiri Violence “precarious and embarrassing strategy of Gov. Yahaya was the use of government-owned or supported media as a propaganda tool.”
“He and his allies extended their reach to the Voice of Nigeria (VON) Hausa service, where an outrageous concoction of an interview of a purported member of Tangale youth, with an accent that is clearly not from Tangale, was recorded with the aim of broadcasting to Hausa listeners.
“In the audio, the interviewee claimed his team of vandals was promised money by some unnamed people to carry out the mayhem in Billiri.
“The speaker, codenamed “Ben” threatened to reveal the names of their sponsors if they are not paid.
“Well, we know that he was paid to make the statement, but we encourage him to please go ahead and reveal his sponsors because we the Tangale people have been looking for the perpetrators of the mayhem beyond the governor himself. His own time of justice will come sooner or later.
“We also caution VON, not to let anyone drag its own reputation into the mud of fake news,” the statement said.
We encourage them to investigate the matter and save its name from the children of Inuwa Yahaya, who knows no shame. Propagating lies on such a medium could lead to national upheaval.
Let them investgate very well from the time of peaceful demonstration, the youth who report to VON in hausa, the committee form by the government to investigate the violence,for justice to prevail.