A cross section of Nigerians under the auspices of Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG) has shunned the trending claims in some quarters suggesting that the incumbent President of Nigeria is an impostor known as “Jubrin from Sudan”.
In a statement issued by the group on Sunday in London, United Kingdom, they tagged the rumor mongers as a group of mentally derailed fellows who urgently needs the attention of a psychiatrist.
The statement which was signed by Engr Francis Adeka, President of the forum, reads in part:
“The claim is being bolstered with a poor rendition and understanding of scientific procedures like cloning, face transplant among others, which proves that those that are carrying this fake news need mental intervention.
“The fake claim would have been considered humorous but for the fact that it has attained the first position of the most ridiculous and hare-brained in the annals of conspiracy theories.
“It is a story meant to prey on the gullible by reason of limited mental capacity, whose numbers seem to be increasing on daily basis. Sadly, those peddling the fake news about cloning have even lesser mental capacity than the people they are deceiving.
“The leading organization on cloning was categorical in stating that “Gene cloning is the most common type of cloning done by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
“NHGRI researchers have not cloned any mammals and NHGRI does not clone humans,” the group maintained.
The group further shamed the rumours stating that proponents of the fallacy are using a 1997 Sci-Fi thriller, Face/Off, as prop in their illogical argument saying there has been a face swap between President Buhari and Jubrin.
According to the statement:
“In the medical world, there has been a handful of partial and full face transplants but the recipients of the face transplant look nothing like the donors; and of course the new faces come with some level of distortion with the risk of rejection for which the patients take a cocktail of mediation for life.
“Even more childish is the flipping and reversing of photographs of President Buhari to claim that one version is right handed while the other is left handed, which is a photo trick that is achievable with the most basic photo editing software,” they lashed.
NDMG revealed that the trending “sick theory” was tracked to a point in time when the disgraced former governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose claimed that he had mortuary photos of a corpse insisting was the President of Nigeria.
The group also traced the failed scheme connected to the ranting of a fugitive known as Nnamdi Kanu, who makes regular broadcasts to repeat the content of his hallucinations and to “one Femi Fani-Kayode, who has changed affiliations faster than a pendulum swings”.
The statement reads further:
“It is most unfortunate that some politicians are now peddling the concoction of these type of people instead of offering them the mental help they urgently need.
“Contrary to scoring the desired political points against President Buhari, promoters of this cloning conspiracy have instead presented themselves to the world as feeble and unfit to pilot the affairs of their own country to the extent that they do not have the basic understanding of how concepts like cloning and organ transplant work.
“They have also done damage at the international relations level because their claims amounts to accusing world leaders that have met President Buhari of being part of the conspiracy they are alleging, which cannot be the case since these nations have not just the technology but also the intelligence gathering capabilities to know if they are dealing with a clone or the real person”.
NDMG urged Nigerians to shut down the network of those peddling this unintelligent story, since its purveyors rely on people sharing their lie and fake news on chat fora and social media platforms the simple decision not to share will go a long way in addressing the spread of fake news while appealing to Nigerians to devote funds to facilitate a psychiatric intervention for the rumour mongers
