The Director Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has alerted Nigerians to the perceived sinister moves and orchestrated plans of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party( PDP ), to unleash a wave of fake news, especially in Hausa language to malign, defame and delegitimise the Presidential candidate of APC in the forthcoming 2023; general elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC before Nigerians.
Onanuga raised the alarm on Sunday in a Press statement personally signed by him and made available to the newsmen in Abuja, adding that “This scurrilous campaign by the PDP has already been perfected with a dedicated team working day and night from the PDP national headquarters at Wadata House, Abuja.”
He stated further that “The party( PDP) has also recruited many social media actors to carry out the campaign of calumny by proxy.
“We uncovered this evil plot targeted to manipulate Nigerians and, most significantly, Northerners to see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in a bad light as the only way for PDP and its failing presidential campaign to have a chance at the February 25 presidential election.
“We consider it necessary at this point to advert the mind of Nigerians to this evil plan capable of causing disharmony, ill-will, and needless crisis with attendant security implications in the country.
“PDP and their hired social media influencers have already started pushing their nefarious contents by spoofing and using parody social media accounts of popular newspapers and blogs to disseminate fake news with the sole aim of hoodwinking gullible Nigerians,” said Onanuga.
He, however, pointed out that “Many parody social media accounts such as ‘Vanguard Hausa,’ ‘DailyTrust Hausa’ have been created and used to circulate fake news on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other digital platforms.”
According to him, “On Facebook, we found that Daily Trust Hausa was first created as KRK Media on August 9, 2021. It changed its name to Daily Trust Media on December 7, 2022, and has a fake website address daily.com“.
The statement noted, “A second Daily Trust Hausa Facebook account was created August 13, 2022, as Facos News Hausa, with the objective of publishing posts on Musicians. It changed its name on December 29, 2022, just 22 days after its other clone, stressing that “Vanguard Hausa was created December 21, 2021. Its website failed to open.”
The statement reads in parts, “All these parodies the PDP used Facebook accounts on Saturday to publish malicious fake news that trucks carrying old Naira notes, belonging to Tinubu were arrested in Lagos.”
According to him, “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 fake news merchants have cloned them for political offensives, masterminded by PDP,” he maintained.”
He, however, stated 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 the election by hook or crook.”
Accordingly, he said, “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.”
“The legacies the party left behind were insecurity, poorly managed economy, looted treasury, derelict national infrastructure in roads, power, ports, rail, pipelines among many others. The statement declared that the Buhari administration is still struggling to unmake the massive damage done to our country by the party.
“Because Atiku’s Presidential Campaign is heading to a crash, PDP futilely hopes to avoid the impending electoral defeat by sponsoring a coordinated fake news assault on APC, our presidential candidate and even against the government.
“We use this medium to urge Nigerians and, most significantly, our compatriots in Northern Nigeria not to allow themselves to be deceived,
“Atiku and PDP have nothing good to offer Nigerians other than his rabid ambition to enrich himself, family members and cronies, as revealed in audio and video leaks by Atiku’s former Media Aide, Mike Achimugu, said Onanuga.
The statement, however, explained that “The APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is working very hard to solve many of Nigeria’s decades-long problems across sectors, and it is only another APC administration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima that can continue, sustain and improve on the trajectory of good governance that began from 2015”.
