#SokotoAccident: Amir Sa’ad Abubakar, cousins responding well – Sultanate Council
By Bashir Adefaka
*Appreciates sympathy of Nigerians towards royal family
“The Sultanate Council Sokoto is pleased to announce that Amir Sa’ad Abubakar, who is hospitalised on account of injuries he sustained, along with his two cousins, Khalifa Muhammad Maccido Aliyu and Zainab Bara’u Isah in an automobile accident in Sokoto, on Sunday September 9th 2018, is rapidly responding to treatment.”
The Sultanate Council Sokoto (SCS), Monday night, officially reacted to sensationalised news by an online media (not The DEFENDER) presenting the unfortunate accident involving the eldest son of the leader of the Calliphate and his two cousins in bad light.
The SCS, which did not bother itself with the unfortunate mischief attempted by the media report, assured all and sundry and well-wishers who had shown concerns over the sad event that the accident victims were positively responding to treatment at the hospital.
The Council disclosed this in a statement signed by the Secretary to the Sultanate Council Sokoto, Alhaji Umar Faruk Ladan, copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER Monday night.
The statement titled, “Press release on Amir Sa’ad Abubakar and cousins responding to treatment”, read in part:
“The Sultanate Council Sokoto (SCS) is pleased to announce that Amir Sa’ad Abubakar, who is hospitalised on account of injuries he sustained, along with his two cousins, Khalifa Muhammad Maccido Aliyu and Zainab Bara’u Isah in an automobile accident in Sokoto, on Sunday September 9th 2018, is rapidly responding to treatment.
“Since the unfortunate accident on Sunday afternoon, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar CFR, mni, his family and office have been inundated with calls and visits by anxious family members, friends and well-wishers, who have been unsettled since news of the accident was sensationally broken by a section of the social media.
“We wish to reassure that all those involved in the crash are in good hands in the hospital and are responding positively to treatment.”
The DEFENDER earlier on Monday had done a clarification report, which apparently neutralised the Sahara Reporters’ “mischievously sensationalised breaking of the unfortunate accident involving Amir and his cousins.
It reported some Sokoto sources saying the cause of the accident was not exactly what the online media (not The DEFENDER) “usually known for its misrepresentation of facts against targets” reported.
Sahara Reporters had on Sunday reported the accident was due to over-speed caused by Amir’s being “high on codeine”, but both highly and lowly placed sources in the City of the Caliphate particularly those close to the Sultan’s Palace told The DEFENDER, during a fact-finding mission on Monday, that if anything would be said to have caused the accident, it was far from being under the influence of either drug or any drink.
“No, no, no. That is not true. In a bid to achieve its mission, Sahara Reporters did not even know the name of the Sultan of Sokoto because what it reported was ‘eldest son of Usman Sa’ad Abubakar Sultan of Sokoto’ and our Sultan is not Usman.
“You know that Airport road that it is actually not a place any vehicle crawls like snails. However, the only thing I think could have happened was his attempt to pick a call until the car approached the roundabout and crashed. This however has not been heard directly from him since he still needs to be allowed to rest.
“What I can say on this is that, if there is anybody who has gone out to write evil out of the misfortune that has happened to fellow human being, you should just leave whoever has done that to his Lord and Allah is good in treating everybody based on his deeds. As for us, we are pained this happened to Amir but we are looking up to Allah for his mercy because, the impact of the accident on him is much. It is unfortunate and painful,” one of the sources, who said he was in the hospital with Amir while The DEFENDER’s call entered, said.
Although other occupants mainly members of the Royal family were also injured but not to the degree suffered by Amir, who broke in the legs, it was gathered.
Secretary to the Sultanate Council (SSC), Alhaji Faruq Ladan, when called upon by The DEFENDER with a view to unravelling the situation surrounding the accident and state of health of the royal son, confirmed that the accident actually happened but denied the angle introduced to the story by Sahara Reporters.
He said, since Amir is son of a big man that is known all over the world, conscienceless media practitioner or information manager would want to twist whatever happened about him just to create unnecessary noise over the accident.
“Amir, son of Sultan had accident yesterday (Sunday) and he is still at the hospital as I speak to you, but he is picking up,” he confirmed.
Asked about items Sahara Reporters reportedly said were found on him and in the car, the Sultanate Council spokesman said, “They are all telling lies. They did not see the car. The car was removed immediately and so where did they search the car and find whatever they said they found in it? They are just fabricating information and nothing else.”
He added, “Honestly, you know when things happen, and you know Sultan is a big man, they tend to make noise. That is how you should take whatever they reported. But normally I can tell you that Amir, for now, is still in the hospital.”
On whether there was plan to take him to Abuja or fly him out of the country for further treatments, Alhaji Faruk Ladan said, “For now I don’t know.”
Another source, who spoke under condition of anonymity, however told The DEFENDER that it was possible for Amir to be taken out of Sokoto any moment from the time of speaking with The DEFENDER either to Abuja or out of the country.
He said, “That is about our brother who has had accident and anybody can be involved in accident. We have situation where a whole Honourable Minister of the Federal Republic, wife and son had accident on Abuja-Kaduna road and died. What did journalists not report? They said the driver was the one who killed them. Now it is Amir, because he drove himself, he must have been on something, according to them.
“Don’t forget what they made of Yusuf Buhari when he had motorbike accident in Abuja. Did we not have son of a former minister of the country who is now governor of a Northern state that was also involved in accident along Airport road in Abuja and died instantly? Did you not read or hear what they make of him?
“I think if we want Allah to change our situation from bad to good in this country, our media organisations and practitioners need to call themselves together and work against the evil-minded among them. Just try my suggestion; the solution to Nigeria’s problem resides in the media community. When the media mean well for Nigeria and Nigerian people, Nigeria will be better. So, my brother, don’t let what Sahara Reporters did about Amir bother you,” he said.
He however expressed displeasure at why people complain about evil minded media in Nigeria and, yet, such practitioners would not want to change, asking if people who write to celebrate the misfortunate of other people actually have conscience.
“But why do some journalists rubbish themselves thinking that they are rubbishing the image of people whom Allah has made great? Sometimes even if there is anything negative about our leaders, it behoves any reasonable media practitioner that wants Allah to think well towards him or her, here and in the hereafter, to fear Allah and do the normal thing. There is nothing normal in people looking out for negative things about other people particularly reputable leaders at all times. That is what I said to myself the moment I saw that Sahara Reporters’ story.
“If you go along major roads in parts of the country, you see how accident happened but something must be the cause of any accident and this has not happened to this family in very long time. Not even while his father, a retired General, was in service, or thereafter as king. Whatever sad that happens the way of any Muslim, he takes it as act of Allah, especially after he is sure that he has taken every caution within his limited capacity. So, that is the truth,” he said.
In the meantime, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, who was in Zaria at a programme where he had to deliver a lecture when the news of the son’s accident was broken to him, has taken the situation calmly although it could be painful to a father, The DEFENDER gathered.
A source told us that it was his time to deliver his paper at the Zaria event when the news was broken to the Sultan, “I salute his leadership quality. It pained him I, myself, knew because father-to-son relationship is thick. But, believe me, as a General he would not show his pain in the public and that was what happened so much that he still mounted the podium and delivered his lecture, calmly and still proceeded to accomplish the mission in Abuja for which he left home in Sokoto before the incident occurred,” a source in Abuja told The DEFENDER.
