TheCable

The Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation has asked Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, to call his supporters to order and ask them to desist from spreading fake news.

In a statement, Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the campaign organisation, asked Obi to get his supporters to desist from “spreading lies, malice and denigrating other candidates, especially Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)”.

He said the organisation saw the need to appeal to Obi to rein in his supporters after investigating the origin of the fake report claiming that Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo wrote a letter to Tinubu, asking him to support Obi and take care of his health.

TheCable had reported that Akufo Addo debunked the claim.

Onanuga said Nigeria will be better for it and the electoral process will be enriched if the 2023 presidential campaign sticks to issues of good governance that will lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty rather than being dominated by “the ravings of guttersnipes, who do not wish the country well”.

“We have found that the fake news about Akufo-Addo’s letter was first published on June 22 by a rogue platform, whose URL reads as worlsnews.space (sic) and site identity as World of News,” Onanuga said.

“A content analysis of the site clearly showed that it is a Biafra news platform. The fake news was reposted on Facebook by Peter Obi Support Group, same day – a clear proof that Biafra campaigners and Peter Obi supporters are the same.

“Both the Facebook account and the website are replete with fake stories about Bola Tinubu, including a fake story credited to former governor Akinwunmi Ambode, alleging that Tinubu demanded N50billion monthly payment from him. The spuriousness of the statement is in the evidence that Lagos did not begin to clock N50billion revenue until after Ambode left office. Tinubu could not have demanded N50billion monthly payment from Ambode when the state government didn’t make such in a month throughout the tenure of Mr. Ambode.

“The pirate website, which the Facebook account feeds on also parades malicious fake news and headlines such as ‘I am old, but my blood is young, please vote for me – Tinubu begs youth’ .

“There is also the most wicked of all headlines: When I became president, I will Build more prison (sic) for Igbo’s and IPOB members – Tinubu.

“The big surprise in all of these is that all the headlines have no supporting stories, and clicking them may bring virus to your computer.

“We have come to a point where it becomes imperative to tell Mr. Obi to show leadership and disavow his supporters who are employing fake news and disinformation as deliberate tools to deceive and poison the minds of unsuspecting Nigerians.”