Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa said at the weekend that all his children were university graduates and working in their chosen fields before he became executive governor of the state on the 20th May 2010 through divine intervention.
The governor was reacting to series of reports by two Kaduna based weekly newspapers which claimed that his children were schooling abroad while the education sector of the state was deteriorating.
Yakowa said that the pictures used in the reports were same pictures used three years ago even as he frowned at the indecency of dragging a photo journalist who died on June 19, 2011 by using his outdated pictures of 22nd and 29th August 2011 and crediting them to him.
Yakowa, in a press statement issued by his media aid, Reuben Buhari, said, “Recently, Desert Herald in its report of 22nd August, 2011 carried a report in one of its editions with the caption: Gov.Yakowa ‘Kills’ Free Primary Education At A Time His Children Study Abroad’ (sic). Several days later, The Liberator too in its edition of 29th August, 2011, like a faithful puppy, ran the same report unedited with the same caption, same text, same picture and same exhibition of deliberate loss of all journalistic sensibilities.
Ironically, the two reports contained basic flaws which anybody, even a cub reporter would easily notice. To put the record straight, as at May 20, 2010 when he assumed office as the Executive governor of Kaduna state, all the children of His Excellency, Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa had graduated, while three of them were already gainfully employed. So, the report that the governor’s children were attending schools abroad had no iota of truth. It is but the figment of the imagination of the author of the reports.
It is also important to mention that Desert Herald carried the same report with the same sets of pictures a few years ago in other to attract patronage from the state government through blackmail; the same report and pictures were exhumed and the name of Governor Yakowa imposed on it to give it some level of credibility and currency.”
The statement also decried the dragging the name of a dead journalist in the matter. “The journalist, Sahabi Yahaya (May His gentle Soul rest in Peace) whose by line appears on the pictures died on 19th June 2011 after a protracted illness. The two newspapers chose to raise him from the dead to get the pictures of schools that are allegedly abandoned by the state government.
Interestingly, they chose to extend their act of irresponsibility to even the dead. It is also important to say that this same report was carried by a daily newspaper when the current Vice President, Arch. Mohammed Namadi Sambo was governor of the state.
The author of the report had problem with his employers when it was discovered that the pictures of the said primary schools used to illustrate the report had already received the attention of the government. The same report with the same content and pictures are now being carried in 2011! To show their level of Journalistic ineptitude, The liberator copied the same story verbatim including the by line of a dead photo-journalist.