Presidential candidate of All the Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has urged his Labour Party counterpart, Mr. Peter Obi, to caution his supporters from spreading lies, malice and denigrating him (Tinubu) and other candidates.
Tinubu, in a statement by the Director of his Media and Communications, Mr Bayo Onanuga, admonished Obi to restrain his supporters and allow the 2023 election to be about issues that will advance the growth, progress and stability of Nigeria, warning that “falsehood and disinformation will not win elections”.
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He said the country’s electoral process would 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.
Mr. Onanuga noted that the Tinubu Campaign Organisation saw the need to appeal to Mr. Obi to rein in his supporters after investigating the origin of the fake report claiming that the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo wrote a letter to Tinubu, asking him to support Peter Obi and take care of his health.
The President of Ghana via his official Twitter account has dismissed the fake news as a product of deliberate mischief with the intent to deceive the public.
“I have written no such letter to the APC leader, and it will not occur to me to do so. Ghana and Nigeria boast of decades of cordial, strong and brotherly relations, and I am not going to be the one to interfere in the internal affairs and politics of Nigeria,” President Akufo-Addo said via Twitter.
Onanuga said: “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.
“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. 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.”
