The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Sunday debunked media reports that he had joined the race to retain his position as Speaker in the 9th Assembly.
A statement from the Office of the Speaker, signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, described such report in some national dailies and social media platforms as “fake news.”
He therefore urged Nigerians to disregard the “fake news being pushed and circulated by mischief makers and enemies of progress who want to create confusion in order to benefit from it.”
The statement tagged “Disregard fake news about Speaker Yakubu Dogara” said the Speaker had always spoken for himself through official channels when necessary, and as such, could not engage in childish hide and seek games.
The statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to stories published in some national dailies to the effect that His Excellency, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has joined the race for the Speakership of the 9th Assembly.
“We wish to distance the Speaker from the fake news being pushed and circulated by mischief makers and enemies of progress who want to create confusion in order to benefit and feast on it.
“The Rt. Hon. Speaker has always spoken for himself and would not be engaged in childish hide and seek games. When he contested in 2015 he openly sought for support and openly canvassed for votes and there is nothing stopping him from doing so now if that was the case.
“We have official channels of communication and we have not issued any statement to that effect.
“We urge members of the public to totally disregard the fake news being published about the Speaker.”
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