Anyone that honestly believes that the U.S. Government based its intelligence to bomb parts of Sokoto state on the intel supplied by an Onitsha-based screwdriver-seller who used Google map to source his information and not on the intel supplied by the Nigerian intelligence…
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) January 19, 2026
Former Minister of Aviation and ambassador-designate, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has faulted a report attributed to The New York Times which alleged that unverified claims by an Onitsha-based screwdriver trader influenced the first United States airstrikes carried out in Nigeria. Reacting via his X handle, @realFFK, Fani-Kayode described the report as “fake news” and “nothing but a hefty load of disingenuous and infantile hogwash,” insisting that the operation was based on intelligence supplied by Nigerian security agencies and not a private individual.
He described the report as misleading and insulting to both Nigeria and the United States, arguing that no sovereign nation would permit military action on its soil based on such claims. “Anyone that honestly believes that the U.S. Government based its intelligence to bomb parts of Sokoto State on the intel supplied by an Onitsha-based screwdriver-seller who used Google Map to source his information and not on the intel supplied by the Nigerian intelligence services must have a low IQ, low self-esteem and a low intelligence quotient. I respectfully urge such a person to get sense,” he wrote, adding that, “No country will allow its country to be bombed in the name of fighting ISIS or anyone else on the words of an Onitsha utensils trader.” Fani-Kayode said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had already clarified that the strikes were carried out in collaboration with Nigerian authorities, noting, “The Nigerian Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has made it clear that the Americans took the action in collaboration with our Armed Forces and Intelligence agencies and that the intel they used to do so was given to them by our Government.”