The APC PCC spokesman said it was out to misinform and mislead Nigerians and disseminate malicious information Tinubu in the run-up to the Feb. 25 election.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it has discovered an online news platform set up to disseminate false and malicious information about the APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Spokesman of the council, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in a statement on Sunday, adding that the platform claimed the EFCC raided Tinubu’s home and found N400 billion new naira notes.
He said, “The APC PCC has stumbled on a rogue website, www. Igbotimesmagazine.online, out to disseminate false and malicious information about Sen. Bola Tinubu the APC presidential candidate
“In its latest false news, the site 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 naira notes was recovered from there.”
He added that the story which notably lacked the essential when, where and how ingredients of any news story, went viral.
Onanuga further added that the EFCC had since issued a formal statement on the purported raid by its men at Tinubu’s home, saying it was a fake story.
Onanuga, therefore, called on the public to disregard the story.
He added that the dubious website, in its fake story, claimed investigations were ongoing to identify the bank manager that made such money available to Tinubu.
He said the online publication admitted its absurdity when it wrote that the money recovered in Tinubu’s underground house was equivalent to the entire money printed for the whole of 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?” Onanuga wondered.
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He said the site, which on Twitter and Facebook appeared to have links with the Labour Party, went further in another post, to claim that President Buhari ordered the arrest of the bank manager that made the phantom money available to Tinubu.
The APC PCC spokesman recalled that in a previous post two weeks ago, the site 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.
“We want to warn Nigerians to be wary of every piece of news emanating from the site, and its social media handles.
“There will be many of such sites as some candidates become desperate to win the election at all costs,” he said.
This, he said, was in fulfilment of some rogue and rigged opinion polls by ANAP Foundation and Nextier, shunning all decent norms and rules.
Onanuga said the igbotimesmagazine.online, with its affiliated social media handles, existed for no good of the country.
The APC PCC spokesman said it was out to misinform and mislead Nigerians and disseminate malicious information Tinubu in the run-up to the Feb. 25 election.
“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.
“We urge the authorities to fish out the people behind the site that is recklessly dishing out fake news before more damage is done to our polity,” he said.