Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has declared that no amount of fake news will stop the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, from winning next month’s election.
Bello stated this yesterday while debunking reports that he had dumped Tinubu’s presidential campaign train.
Bello, who featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said his support for Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, remains unwavering and undiluted.
Claims from a national daily stated that the Kogi State governor had withdrawn his support for Tinubu against the backdrop of permutations in Kogi politics.
The report claimed the governor was suspicious that the lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, James Faleke, may contest the 2024 APC governorship ticket in Kogi State with Tinubu’s backing.
The Kogi governor was appointed the National Youth Coordinator of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council in September last year in a letter addressed to him and signed by Tinubu.
However, reacting to the report of him distancing himself from the APC campaign, Bello, who described it as fake news, as he called on relevant authorities to ensure that purveyors of such fake news are dealt with, adding that he remained a foremost mobiliser of young voters for Tinubu.
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He said, “I myself woke up this morning to see that particular fake news in the air today and there is no smoke without fire, and in this particular instance, I’m sure and the fire is prepared and fired in the air but, you know, surely that it cannot be sustained. It is most unfortunate and I’m urging all the law enforcement agencies (to get those behind it).”
The APC Youth Coordinator called on security agencies, regulatory bodies regarding journalism and media practitioners practicing in Nigeria, to live up to their responsibilities and quickly take actions against these people.
“The current electoral laws even empower INEC to investigate things like this and prosecute the liars. These perpetrators must not go unpunished as far as electoral laws are concerned.
“I’m adequately reassuring millions of Nigerians youths and Nigerians, our followers, as well as supporters within and across the world that I remain the very supporter, mobiliser, a campaigner and driver of votes for our leader and the president-in-waiting Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu-Shetima, the flag bearers of our great party, the APC. Of course, every Nigerian knows that as far as this election is concerned because of the demographic I represent and across the globe.”
The governor gave the management of the newspaper 24 hours to retract that particular story, tender a public apology and give it a lot of publicity, failing which he would consider legal action.
Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, in a statement on Sunday, also described the report as fake news.
He said, “The story is maliciously false and a figment of the imagination of it’s author and sponsors.
“Governor Yahaya Bello who serves as the national youth coordinator of the Tinubu-Shettima presidential campaign council, is a solid, resourceful and committed campaigner for our party’s candidate, leading a massively successful outreach to youth voters across the country,” he added.
