He said this is to avoid being hoodwinked into passing off the perverted voices of irritant groups as that of well-respected officials and security authorities.
A statement by the former President’s Media Aide, Ikechukwu Eze, reads: “Our attention has been drawn to two stories entitled, ‘Report links Jonathan to Niger Delta Avengers’ and ‘FG probes Jonathan over N/Delta bombings’ published in both the Nation and Daily Trust newspapers, respectively of Thursday August 18, 2016 with the claim that some intelligence reports had linked Jonathan to the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta.
“We obviously would have ignored the allegation, having responded recently to the exact same fabrication peddled by a shady militant group but for the new dimension of bringing in the authorities while hiding under the often-abused journalism latitude of quoting nebulous ‘sources.’
“First, we note that there were similarities in the two stories published the same day by the two newspapers that are too striking to pass the test of the normal newsroom process of diligent reporting and independent investigation.”
The statement also stated, “We are convinced that such clear coincidences are only permissible in situations where general statements are issued but not on matters of intelligence/security reports which do not fly into newsrooms as press releases.
“We are also concerned that the stories do not differ in content and substance from the trite allegations earlier made by the so-called Reformed Niger Delta Avengers over the same lies of linking Jonathan to the militants.
“From what we know about intelligence gathering, there is no responsible government agency that would rush, as claimed in the newspaper stories, to adopt the accusations of a questionable rebellious organisation as its own findings, without applying the professional processes of rigor and due diligence.”
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