The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has raised an alarm over alleged move by the Peoples Democratic Party to come up with a wave of fake news to defame its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, barely a few weeks to the election.
The campaign council said a dedicated team for that sole purpose had already been constituted, “working day and night,” from the PDP headquarters in Abuja.
In a statement issued on Sunday and signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, the PCC said the main opposition party had also “recruited many social media actors to carry out the campaign of calumny by proxy.”
The statement read in part, “We uncovered this evil plot targeted to manipulate Nigerians and most especially Northerners to see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in bad light as the only way for the PDP and its failing presidential campaign to have a chance at the February 25 presidential election.
“We consider it necessary at this point to alert Nigerians to this evil plan capable of causing disharmony, ill-will and needless crisis with attendant security implications in the country.
“The 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.”
“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.
In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ibrahim Abdullahi accused the ruling party of having castigated the party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, without the PDP raising any alarm.
