The Many Lies of Kogi’s Information Commissioner

Notes for File

There is always a possibility that when one lies too often, he or she would one day be exposed. This was exactly the case last week when the Department of State Services (DSS) announced that it had arrested two suspected masterminds of the recent bomb explosion in Kogi State – including a commander in the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). The explosion took place during the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the state.

 The revelation by the DSS completely pooh-poohed the claim by the state Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, that the incident was not a bomb explosion but a transformer spark.

The explosion took place at a mosque near the palace of Ado Ibrahim, the paramount ruler of Ebiraland while President Buhari was in the area to inaugurate projects completed by the state government.

The commissioner had in a series of tweets, said it was a transformer spark.

Without any proper investigation, Fanwo went further to say: “Contrary to the blatant lie that there was a bomb explosion that killed three people in Okene, I wish to debunk the falsehood here,” Fanwo wrote in now-deleted tweets. It was “a mere transformer spark, which injured one person.”

But according to a statement issued last Wednesday by the DSS spokesperson, Dr. Peter Afunanya, the suspects identified as Abdulmumin Ibrahim Otaru, said to be an ISWAP commander, and one Saidu Suleiman, were equally behind other attacks, including the invasion of the Kuje medium security custodial centre in July 2022.

Although the Information commissioner later deleted the tweet, his action did not obliterate the fact that he lied.

Since he was first appointed the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Yahaya Bello during his first term in office till now that he is the state Commissioner for Information, Fanwo has been concocting lies and elevating it to another level. He is one official who thinks, the best way to discharge the functions of his office is to tell lies. Each time he has the opportunity to either defend the governor or any government policy, his defence usually laced with lies and propaganda.

It is hoped that this latest incident would teach him a lesson.