Media report saying Kaduna has been renamed Zazzau State fake news – Gov el-Rufai

Governor of Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has denied media report that the state has been renamed Zazzau State, describing it as a fake news.

It was reported in some online newspapers (excluding The DEFENDER), on Monday, that President Muhammadu Buhari had signed a bill to rename Kaduna State to Zazzau State.

The reports had also alleged that the bill, which was jointly sponsored by Senators Suleiman Abdu Kwari and Uba Sani got the approval of 13 members out of 15 of the lower chamber representing different parts of Kaduna State.

In a reaction to the reports on his official twitter handle on Monday, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, the Special Adviser to Governor Nasir el-Rufai on Media and Communication, said the reports were fake news.

The tweet said the state has not been renamed and called the claim as an elaborate piece of fiction.

It urged members of the public to ignore it.

“Kaduna State has not been renamed. Please ignore the elaborate piece of fiction that made the claim. It is fake news.” his tweet reads.

Also, Senator Uba Sani has dismissed the report descrbing it as “a concocted, subversive, malicious and false information

In a tweet on Monday, Senator Sani said, ‘’My attention has been drawn to a concocted, subversive, malicious & false information circulating in the social media claiming that President Buhari has signed a bill for the creation of Zazzau State, which I allegedly co-sponsored in the Senate with Senator Sulaiman Abdul Kwari.”

Through The DEFENDER’s investigations it was revealed that the media airspace of Nigeria is becoming embarrassing for the country that should lead in every thing on the continent as Africa’s most populous country.

Some Nigerians asked if a bill does not have to pass through National Assembly before it gets to the point of being assented to by President of the country.

In the meantime, Nigerians are advised to always hold media reports to question especially when they are too strange to believe as the way to go in the present reality.

State actors too are advised to stop hiding information or distancing themselves from media enquires, “to some unpatriotic media, such behaviour can always make them go and publish anything in the absence of truth”.

A call has, however, gone to government and security agencies to ensure that media organisations publishing fake news be clamped upon as doing that would not amount to acting against press freedom.

“If the press is the fourth estate of the realm, it means like Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, it is a stakeholder in state affairs.

“Therefore, apart from serving President who cannot be prosecuted because he has immunity, if any pressman or his media organisation runs foul of the law, he or it should be appreciated or sanctioned. Without bringing activities of media; online, print and electronic, under control of law, fake news, which is major cause of insecurity currently will never stop,” he said.

This online newspaper reports that what obtains is Zazzau Emirate with its traditional headquarters in Zaria and that there has been no attempt to push it as a state name.