The drama began with a headline: reports that traditional rulers in Okunland had rejected Governor Ahmed Ododo’s re-election bid. Within hours, the story took on a life of its own as it was echoed on the radio, stretched across WhatsApp groups, and dissected in beer parlours from Kabba to Isanlu.
By nightfall, the Okun Area Traditional Council pushed back. No ruler, they said, had endorsed or rejected anyone. Their only recent meeting was on security, not politics. The report, they warned, was fiction packaged as news. Yet, in the public mind, where smoke curls, fire normally follows.