The animosity between supporters of frontline presidential candidates – Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) continues after a statement issued by the former’s campaign group.
This was as the spokesman of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation (TCO) Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Wednesday appealed to Mr. Obi to rein in his supporters.
This was after investigations into the origin of a 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.
In the aftermath, Akufo-Addo, via his official Twitter account, vehemently debunked the fake news as a product of deliberate mischief with the intent to deceive the public.
In the statement entitled, “Mr. Peter Obi, Call Your Supporters To Order; Falsehood and disinformation will not win election,” Onaniga said, “The Tinubu Campaign Organisation has appealed to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi to call his supporters to order and to allow this election circle to be about issues that will advance the growth, progress, and stability of Nigeria.”
Onanuga further stated, “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 the Peter Obi Support Group, on the same day – 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 N50 billion 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 a 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,” Mr. Onanuga reiterated
