The Arewa Youth Federation reacted to the report by the United States media platform for alleging that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration paid the sum of Twenty Million Naira (N20,000,000) to avoid air attacks.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Nigeria Air Force, NAF, had released the amount of money mentioned in the previous paragraph as ransom to armed bandits to gain free access to their destination.
The payment made, the report said, was in exchange for a seized anti-graft gun and the prevention of any physical altercation with the bandits.
Yesterday, according to a statement by Muhammad Matazu, the president of the youth group, in his words, he said the report is a spurious and veiled attempt to blackmail the armed forces and fuel insecurity in the country.
He said the home-based media organizations amplified the same fictitious report and continually disseminated falsehood.
Arewa Youth President Says Wall Street Report False
The allegation, he said, goes against security agencies while contemplating the professional ethics of some of the media organizations that joined in the bandwagon of those peddling fake news to the public.
Mr Matazu regretted that the same media outfit had in 2019 published a false claim that Nigerian Army had buried over 1000 officers killed by Boko Haram in secrete graves in Borno state.
