The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) has uncovered an online platform set up to disseminate false and malicious information about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling APC.
The Director, Media and Publicity of the council, Bayo Onanuga in a statement in Abuja on Sunday gave the website address of the platform as www.Igbotimesmagazine.online .
According to the campaign council, the platformi’s latest false news ” claimed that some EFCC operatives, on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari, raided the “underground home” of Tinubu. It claimed that N400 billion of the new notes weer recovered from there. The story notably lacked the essential “when, where and how” ingredients of any news story, went viral.
“The EFCC has since issued a formal statement on the purported raid by its m as a fake story the public should disregard.
“The dubious website, in its fake story, claimed investigations are still ongoing as to which bank manager made such money available to Tinubu, it then admitted its absurdity when it wrote that “the money recovered in Tinubu’s “underground house” is equivalent of “the entire money printed for the whole Nigeria” by the CBN.
“So, if Tinubu alone has all the money printed by Godwin Emefiele’s CBN, how do you account for the billions distributed by the apex bank to all the banks, including operators of POS?”
The council further said its investigation has linked the platform to the Labour Party.
“The site, which on Twitter and Facebook appears to have links with the Labour Party, went further, in another post, to claim that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the arrest of the bank manager that made the phantom money available to the APC candidate.
“In a previous post two weeks ago, the site had claimed that ‘an angry mob blocked N3 billion of new notes heading to Tinubu’s house’.
“Other fake news on the site included one that claimed the Federal Government planned to borrow money from kidnappers in Kaduna because they have more money than our country. It credited the misleading news to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture.”
The council advised Nigerians to be wary of every piece of the news emanating from the site and its social media handles.
According to the council, “There will be many of such sites as some candidates become desperate to win at all costs, in fulfilment of some rogue and rigged opinion polls by ANAP Foundation and Nextier, shunning all decent norms and rules.
“The igbotimesmagazine.online with its affiliated social media handles exist for no good of our country.
“It is out to misinform and mislead our people and disseminate malicious information on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the up to the 25 February election, which the opposition candidates, including Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are bound to lose.
“We are not surprised that the opposition has embarked on sponsoring a website and social media handles, whose owners are unknown and which lacks physical address or even an email.”
