Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has revisited the controversial allegations made by the late Dr Obadiah Mailafia in 2020, insisting that the claims should neither be forgotten nor treated as established facts.
Dalung said Nigerians risk remembering only the controversy surrounding Mailafia’s statements while losing sight of the key question of what evidence was produced to support them.
Mailafia, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, had in August 2020 alleged that a serving Northern governor was the commander of Boko Haram.
He claimed that the information came from repentant bandit commanders whom he said he and others had engaged through their own intelligence networks.
Mailafia also alleged that Boko Haram and bandit groups were part of the same network involved in moving ammunition, logistics and money across the country.
The claims sparked widespread controversy and drew the attention of security authorities.
The Department of State Services invited Mailafia for questioning, while the National Broadcasting Commission fined Nigeria Info ₦5 million over the broadcast, describing the comments as unverifiable and inciting.
But Dalung while writing on his facebook wall on Thursday said the central issue remains unresolved.
He asked why Nigerians should remember the controversy without equally remembering that Mailafia never publicly identified the alleged governor or produced evidence that established the claim as fact.
“The case of the late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia is one of them,” Dalung said, referring to allegations that become controversial while their original substance is gradually forgotten.
He said Nigerians should be able to separate an allegation from an established fact, particularly when the allegation involves terrorism, ethnicity, religion or political violence.
Dalung also recalled the dispute over Mailafia’s alleged apology to the DSS.
While the DSS reportedly said Mailafia had apologised, Mailafia disputed the account and maintained that he had neither admitted to inciting Nigerians nor apologised for his central claims.
For Dalung, the lesson goes beyond whether Nigerians agreed with Mailafia.
He said society must demand evidence whenever extraordinary allegations are made against individuals, communities or political leaders.
“We should be able to say: This person made this claim. This is the evidence he offered. This is what the authorities did. This is what was subsequently established. And this is what remains unproven,” he said.
Dalung noted that Mailafia was no longer alive to further explain or defend his claims, but said the public record remained.
He urged Nigerians to resist the temptation to accept or reject serious allegations based on political, ethnic or religious considerations.
“Neither should an allegation become false merely because the person making it is politically inconvenient,” he said.
Dalung concluded that the Mailafia controversy should serve as a reminder that evidence, rather than political narratives, must guide public judgment on serious allegations.
COURTESY: Guardian Nigeriaa
