Ambassador-designate Femi Fani-Kayode has strongly refuted a New York Times report suggesting that U.S. airstrikes in Sokoto State relied on intelligence from a civilian source rather than official Nigerian channels. Posting on X, he argued it was impossible for the U.S. government to base a military operation on information from a private individual using online mapping tools.

Fani-Kayode emphasized that such strikes could only occur through formal collaboration between Nigerian and U.S. security agencies. He highlighted that Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, confirmed the operation was fully coordinated with Nigeria’s Armed Forces and intelligence services, and the intelligence used was supplied by official Nigerian sources.

The former minister dismissed the NYT report as misleading and damaging, accusing the newspaper of trying to undermine the credibility of both governments. He described the story as “fake news” and “infantile hogwash,” stressing that no sovereign country would allow its territory to be bombed based on the word of a civilian.

Fani-Kayode further noted that he personally spoke with Minister Tuggar shortly after the airstrikes, who provided details of the intelligence and the planning that preceded the operation. He reiterated that the claim linking the bombing to an Onitsha-based screwdriver trader was false, misleading, and unprofessional.