Questions over source of rumour about President Yar Adua's death

NEWS report, which made the round yesterday on the Internet about the purported death of Nigeria's President in Saudi Arabia on December 10 last year raised global speculations on the state of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's health.
However, observers believed this would force the Federal Government to be more forthcoming with candid information about the health situation of the President and contemplations on the constitutional steps needed to fill the vacuum created by his absence.
Efforts by The Guardian yesterday in the United States (U.S.) to confirm the Online report met with several institutional stonewalls put in place by the publishers of American Chronicle whose website published the story.
However, American Chronicle is not considered a mainstream American news medium. The Online publication has no listed business name from which its phone numbers could be seen. It has no street address or direct email information listed on its website, except a Post Office Box information to the Managing Editor, who was not named, in Beverly Hills, California.
Besides, based on the brief information placed on the website, www.americanchronicle.com, it is a collection of Online magazines with no direct and fast contact information.
Below is what the web site says about itself: "The American Chronicle, California Chronicle, Los Angeles Chronicle, World Sentinel, and affiliates are Online magazines for national, international, state, and local news. We also provide opinion and feature articles. We have over 5,000 contributors, over 100,000 articles, and over 11 million visitors annually."
It was discovered that the website is a free-for-all platform where contributors can easily get their article posted, which explains why the site has over 5,000 contributors.
U.S. Telephone Directories and phone record agencies, called 411 here in New York, yesterday morning tried hard to assist The Guardian track down the address and contact information of the website in California, without any headway. The U.S. phone record agents searched towns in the state of California to track down any of the given names of the publication, but none was listed in the telephone directories.
But the writer of the piece, Hodderway Books, has a series of article in his name, including a book titled Crazy Billionaires Speak, which is featured on Amazon.com. While he is suspected to be based in Kenya, his nationality remains unknown.
In apparent disclaimer notice on its website, The American Chronicle's website stated: "This website and its affiliates have no responsibility for the views, opinions and information communicated here."
Media observers are generally tolerant of disclaimers of views and opinions but not "information" deemed as news.
The website added that "the contributor(s) and news providers are fully responsible for their content" but yet goes ahead to claim copyright.
Commenting, an American observer of Nigerian politics and former adviser to the late Chief MKO Abiola, Mr. Randy Echols said: "I have seen the report, but I will not take it too seriously. If the Nigerian President is dead, U.S. mainstream media will report it."
Also, U.S.-based Nigerian journalist and publisher of Saharareporters, Omoyele Sowore, observed that there were contradictions in the story, "which renders it outrightly unbelievable."
But Sowore added that the publication would force the Nigerian government to defend its claim that President Yar'Adua is still alive.
Internet message board and Nigerian email groups have also been very active since the publication hit the worldwide web early yesterday morning New York time.
On one of such boards, a Nigerian simply wrote: "Forget all this nonsense written by this obscure American newspaper. Yar'Adua is (was?) a Moslem so he could not have died in Saudi Arabia, a Moslem country since December 10 and they keep his body there. As a Moslem country, would there be mortuaries there?"