The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has raised the alarm over alleged plot to discredit its presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari through circulation of fake news.
A statement signed by Bayo Onanuga,
Director, Media & Publicity
APC Presidential Campaign Council fingered the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, ( PDP) as mastermind of the orchestrated plot.
Onanuga in the statement entitled, ”
Unmasking PDP’s orchestrated plot to unleash fake news and disinformation days to election,” further alleged that the PDP has also recruited many social media actors to carry out the campaign of calumny by proxy, using cloned “social media accounts of popular newspapers and blogs to disseminate fake news with the sole aim of hoodwinking gullible Nigerians.”
The APC PCC mentioned the social media accounts of some newspapers as having been parodied to circulate fake news on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and other digital platforms.
It maintained that “Part of the PDP’s evil machinations will be to make false claims and allegations against President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima and other APC National, Regional, Zonal and State leaders in manipulated videos, doctored voice overs, photoshop images and other means all in a bid to win election by hook or crook.”
The APC PCC claimed that the PDP and its presidential candidate knew that it has become increasingly impossible for them to win next general elections which informed the recourse to fake news,
especially in Hausa language to malign, defame and delegitimise Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC before Nigerians.
The statement read in part: “All these parody Facebook accounts were used by the PDP on Saturday to publish malicious fake news that trucks carrying old Naira notes, belonging to Tinubu were arrested in Lagos.
“For clarification, Daily Trust does publish a Hausa paper called Aminiya, which is also on Facebook with the same name. We are not aware that Vanguard has a similar publication.
“We implore the two newspapers, Daily Trust and Vanguard to inform Facebook and Meta that they have been cloned by fake news merchants, for political offensives, masterminded by PDP.
“Part of the PDP’s evil machinations will be to make false claims and allegations against President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima and other APC National, Regional, Zonal and State leaders in manipulated videos, doctored voice overs, photoshop images and other means all in a bid to win election by hook or crook.
“PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar know they can’t win this coming election. They also know Nigerians will never vote for PDP to take over the leadership of Nigeria after inflicting 16 years of misery on Nigerians.”
