Intersociety accuses New York Times of falsifying report, says Christian genocide data verified
By Trek Africa Newspaper
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has accused the New York Times of falsifying parts of its report that told how the United States relied on its often “unverified” information to assert claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria.
In the report published on Sunday, the New York Times said Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety founder, admitted that he “often does not verify his data”.
“He acknowledged that his research was mainly based on ‘secondary sources’, including Christian interest groups, Nigerian news reports and Google searches,” the report said.
Umeagbalasi was quoted as saying he has documented 125,000 Christian deaths in Nigeria since 2009 and claimed 100,000 churches exist in Nigeria, and about 20,000 of them were destroyed in the past 16 years, based on his internet crawling.
However, in a statement on Monday, Intersociety accused the American newspaper of spinning a “perfidy of lies” in its report.
The statement, co-signed by Umeagbalasi and other Intersociety officials, said it was “shocked and totally disappointed” at the “lies injuriously credited” to the organisation, saying they were never part of the interview that lasted for not less than three hours.
More details coming
